A wonderful validation of Alexander’s work…
Sir Stephen Lamport GCVO DL speaking at Alexander’s most recent exhibition…
“Easter Week could not be a better moment to begin an exhibition of Alexander Creswell’s watercolours entitled ‘Journeys in the Holy Land’. But Jerusalem is not an easy option for an artist because this city, so fundamental to the origins of Christianity, is equally a uniquely holy place to both Jews and Moslems. So capturing its essence is complex, even for the best of artists. Yet this is just what Alex does in these paintings. They show vividly his extraordinary sensitivity not just to the power of texture, colour and light, but more subtlely to the numinous and prayerful meaning of sacred buildings and places of faith, and the creative artistry of civilised peoples. These paintings are beautiful, and they are special.
This is, of course, no surprise. Anyone who had the rare pleasure of seeing Alex’s thirty-two watercolours of the interior of Westminster Abbey, hung in the Abbey’s Chapter House last spring, will have seen for themselves the hauntingly wonderful way in which Alex understands and responds to the inner beauty of powerful sacred spaces. And in Westminster Abbey he has created a unique record of the church which the Abbey has acquired in its entirety for the benefit of future generations. It is Alex’s ability to see into, and give back to us, this understanding of the wonder and beauty of the created world, which makes his paintings so incomparable.
This extraordinary skill is not limited to the obviously sacred. It reflects a quality best described as a passionately felt spiritual depth, which Alex gives to all the subjects he paints. His painting reflects a joy and celebration of the lasting beauty of the world around us. You will find that equally in his paintings of Petra and Little Petra. These are not just works of great skill and beauty in themselves, for these paintings do more: they capture the essence and power of wonderful landscapes in a way which conveys something important about their inner and permanent beauty. Architecture two thousand years old and more has, of course, largely decayed or been destroyed beyond recognition from its original glory. Through his eye and through his images Alex is able to give us a captivating and powerful sense of the lasting beauty of these buildings, and of the expression they continue to give of the extraordinary creative talent of past civilisations, whose achievements and whose deep understanding of the world around them we should never underestimate.
Sir Stephen Lamport GCVO DO 27th April 2019
Journeys in the Holy Land at Watts Contemporary until 9th June, open Daily 10-5pm – All Paintings are For Sale
Please visit the exhibition Get Directions to Watts Gallery
Journeys in the Holy Land – Watts Contemporary Gallery 27 April – 9 June 2019
All works are for sale.
After the grandeur and precision of my series of paintings in Westminster Abbey exhibited there in 2018, I wanted to focus on subjects of equal magnificence but with a less formal approach, and a return to the Holy Land seemed a natural progression. It is a privilege to be showing some paintings from my journeys at Watts Contemporary.
These journeys began in Jerusalem, exploring the hectic streets, the intricacies of gateways, fountains, the grandeur of mosques, churches & temples, from the Western Wall to the Holy Sepulchre and on to the Dome of the Rock. Jerusalem is several cities in one, each jostling for space, unified by faith and divided by dogma. While the city has a humble beauty, its stones resonate a spirit of exceptional complexity manifest over several millennia by the intensity of the beliefs and hopes of inhabitants and pilgrims alike. I worked on hasty sketches in the crowded streets & spaces, with broad splashes in watercolour and little time for details as I attempted to capture something of the power and peace of the place.
From Jerusalem to Petra was a journey back in time, through Bethlehem and the secluded cliffhanging monasteries in the high plateau of Judea into the Dead Sea valley, onward up to the Kings Highway to the rocky badlands above Petra.
In Petra I found the very antithesis of Westminster Abbey. I embarked on a series of fresh, almost abstract sketches – colour, texture, dust and light, far from meticulous architectural detail. Harsh sunlight and mineral colours combine to make patterns of imagination. Against the uniformity of rock, the variations of texture and form are animated by changing light, shade and angle, providing a kaleidoscope of colours and surfaces which are a joy to the painter’s eye, often with the same static subject radically morphing from one moment to the next.
In Petra the voice of abandonment murmurs in the remnants of carved rocks. The eye is constantly caught by the hint of a carved figure, or the ghost of hewn steps which once had led to somewhere important. My inspiration grew out of a sense that the battle between the manmade and the natural had been reversed. Man had brought out the forms from the living rock, in the same way that Michelangelo had drawn his sculptures out of stone, liberating monumental figures from stone. Here too in Petra the fine carved facades seemed drawn out of the rock, and eroded for centuries, as if reverting to their original form, the works of man crumbling beneath the forces of nature. Was order emerging from the chaos of nature’s forms, or was it being eroded and ingested by time? The question was captivating. I have been bewitched by this dichotomy throughout my work, from derelict stately homes, burnt-out castles, classical ruins and war-ravaged cities.
It all signifies that nothing is permanent, except perhaps the records of it all in art, literature and music.
Alexander Creswell 2019
