a colour of air by Martin Battye

The Cley Exhibition this year had been delayed due to the Covid Crisis – this enabled some artists to explore their ideas and creativity in a much more extreme imaginative way. Most notable were Martin Battye with his massive abstract paintings and Esther Boehm with ‘Ether’ an installation of great magnitude and sensitivity to the space, i.e. St Margarets at Cley.

‘Nowhere’. Cley 2021

Esther Boehm’s ‘Ether’ is a stunning work. Immediately visible on entering the church of St Margaret of Antioch at Cley, its repeated forms are both separate and work as a composite whole. White, suspended in the air above the baptismal font and above the tombstone of Francis Neale Gent (1711); in front of the magnificent west window, catching every nuance of light on and through the fluctuating sheen texture of each form. This maximises both visibility and the symbolic purity of white. Sometimes it even reflects the stone structure of the cinquefoil and arch of the window behind.

The Sound of Silence

I love nature. We really are blessed with the abundance of flora and fauna we have around us here in Norfolk. From the deer roaming the parklands at Holkham, to the humble but beautiful house sparrows comically arguing on your bird feeders. I am lucky in that my house faces out towards an open field, and at the time of writing, there are many hares playing and boxing out there – they are so much fun to watch.

If you happen to wander past my studio in the High Street, Heacham (Studio @ 55) you may ask yourself what exactly is going on here. The light could be on when most of Heacham is asleep. I may still be working. I have a deadline.

Pines and crevasses ( an I-pad image, from memory, of autumn colours on an escarpment in the Alps whilst travelling along the highway)

Here are two quotes that I believe are very relevant for artists today.

Paul Gauguin :
 ‘Don’t copy nature too closely – art is an abstraction as you dream amid nature, extrapolate art from it and concentrate on what you will create as a result’. 

How I interpret this is: don’t slavishly copy what one sees in front of one (nature/photograph) but interpret it expressing one’s self in one’s own language on the final image.

When I was studying at university, it was a time when health and safety was just beginning to be a big deal. We did wear our Mickey Mouse ears when using power tools and respirators when working with resins and solvents. However, this practice wasn’t generally carried out when one wasn’t working.

“The Party’s Over” (what happened next?!)

What have I done?! 
Setting a challenge to produce a piece of artwork so depicting how you feel about your favourite piece of music.

Well, it was a challenge for me, as I dare say for many of you.

I am currently working on a self-initiated project to illustrate a book about King’s Lynn. It is a fascination town with much history. I felt inspired to create this project whilst invigilating at our summer exhibition in St Nicholas’ Chapel. One of the church staff was giving a guided tour about the church and was enthusiastically talking about the church’s history. This gave me the idea to create a book about the history of the town. I then spent many trips to King’s Lynn sketching around the town and taking photographs. Fortunately, when the first lock down happened, I already had a large buy tramadol no prescription number of images to be working from and have been able to continue since. I have so far created 10 drawings out of a list of 55 that keeps on growing as I discover more and more buildings to add!

Alexander of the second wave

What do you do if you are an artist and you are made to stay at home for a year?

During these difficult times I don’t think it is exaggerating to describe my studio as a life saver. I am able to walk to it every day, if I want to, and I take a flask of coffee and biscuit, and it brings me great joy and happiness to be able to create various pieces of artwork and keep myself busy.