Sat 20 Oct – Sat 27 Oct 2018.
ROMSEY ABBEY, Church Lane, ROMSEY, Hampshire. SO51 8EP
The blessing of Chris Gollon’s newly installed diptych will be in the 6.30pm service on Sunday 21st Oct (Festival of St Ethelflaeda), and all are welcome. To coincide with this celabratory and momentous moment, IAP Fine Art is curating a small exhibition of the five studies for the final work. Main picture, ‘Study on Canvas (III) for St Ethelflaeda’, by Chris Gollon, 24″ x 18″ (61 x 46cm) acrylic on canvas 2016. The 5 studies (shown above, click to enlarge) will be displayed to show the Chris Gollon’s progression to his final image, and will be available to purchase. For further information, please contact us.
Chris Gollon’s national touring exhibition to cathedrals also travelled to Romsey Abbey in autumn 2016, where Gollon was taken both by the Abbey and the history of its famous abbess, St Ethelflaeda. He painted–as a site-specific work for two blind stone recesses–this dramatic diptych of St Ethelflaeda, Abbess of Romsey at the time of the first millennium. Gollon’s diptych looks at the legend recounted of St Ethelflaeda, the moment her candle blows out and she is able to continue reading the Bible only by the Divine light emanating from her hand. The diptych subtly gives the impression of St Ethelflaeda re-entering the Abbey, imbued with light. In 2018, it has been purchased by Romsey Abbey, where it hangs permanently for the public and congregation to enjoy. A full-colour catalogue fine art catalogue featuring the diptych and Chris Gollon’s studies for the final work, along with texts by leading writers including Sara Maitland, is available from the Abbey shop. “I’ve really come to love Chris Gollon’s work and the expressive ways that he represents the human form with exaggeration creating a greater realism”, The Very Revd Catherine Ogle, Dean of Winchester.
Open Mon – Sat 07.30am – 6pm, Sun 11-6pm. Free entry.