Blue School students at Wells Art Contemporary

Three Yr 12 students from the Blue School have been helping at this year's Wells Art Contemporary in Wells Cathedral. Grace Temple, Amanda Lewis and Nana Preston assisted with the mounting of the exhibition and also chose the winner of the annual Interns Award. This year it went to painter Richard Kenton-Webb for his work Acknowledging English Iconoclasm - Contemplatives

Richard visited the exhibition in October and talked to the students about his work and the background to the triptych painting. As a person of faith himself he says " The contemplation of faith through paintings, sculptures, tapestries, stained glass and plays was at the heart of medieval England. However, the period 1540 to 1660 was the age of English Iconoclasm when images, paintings, statues and stained glass were smashed, books destroyed and frescoes whitewashed, with a particularly destructive period under Cromwell. Fortunately Wells Cathedral escaped most of this, with its West Front and Jesse Window remaining largely intact."

His paintings celebrate Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, Christian mystics who lived in Norfolk and famously met around 1413. Both were great spiritual women writers who wrote in English prior to the Reformation. Richard says: "This work is my conversation with these early English mystics who countered the beginnings of Iconoclasm and are, I believe, just as relevant today as they were six centuries ago."

Ceri Shaw's work, Timeline, was also selected for WAC this year. This site-specific installation is displayed on the left-hand side of the steps to the Cathedral's Chapter House. Ceri grew up in Wells and studied at both the Cathedral School and the Blue School. She now lives in Bradford-on-Avon.

Her work is strongly influenced by her concern for the climate and the natural environment. Timeline consists of twelve vessels arranged across twelve ascending steps, showing different stages of erosion, from the most worn to the least. Through this gradual transformation, Ceri explores the passing of time and how landscapes and materials are shaped by nature and human activity.

"With my work, I want people to connect with the emotions they experience in a landscape, become more aware of their surroundings and consider what these experiences mean to them. The arrangement of the vessels suggests the cycles of life, memory and history, while their ascent creates a sense of movement between decay and renewal. In the setting of Wells Cathedral, the work reflects on the passage of time and the centuries of weathering, preservation and human activity that have shaped this historic building."

For more on the artists see https://richardkentonwebb.art/ and https://www.cerishaw.com/

Instagram @richardkentonwebb, @cerishaw_