‘Silver Linings’ Photo: by Judith Bromley.
Artist Friend holds skybound exhibition
'The clearness, movement and freedom of the paintings is a panacea against the restrictions and fear of lockdown.’
The Quaker artist Judith Bromley held an exhibition last month inspired by her lockdown sky-gazing.
Judith Bromley told the Friend that the exhibition ‘Sun and Shadow: Silver Linings’ at The Garden Rooms Gallery at Tennants of Leyburn was a release against the restrictions of the past year. ‘I had thought that the next project might be a study of water, or that my work might become more abstract like the watercolour paintings which were used in the leaflet “Our Faith in the Future”, and the recent Quaker Arts Network (QAN) book Ways to Kiss the Earth. But I was drawn to look up – I didn’t know why, but I have often called clouds God’s abstract painting in the skies. Constantly moving and, when the pandemic took over our lives, plane-trail-free, I almost became obsessed, and I didn’t know why… I just had to do it.’
Once the exhibition was on, Judith said she realised ‘why I have been led to do these paintings. Yes, they bring our minds to climate change, but they are working as an uplifting and healing energy which I didn’t expect. I am being told that the clearness, movement and freedom of the paintings is a panacea against the restrictions and fear of lockdown.’
With comments including ‘the theme is perfect for this difficult time’ and ‘not having been able to get to the Dales since January, I felt as if I could be there – head back, looking skyward and watching the clouds fan by’, Judith Bromley said the exhibition from 20 October - 1 November was ‘very well-attended’. There is now an online catalogue.
