The Eynsham Art Window artists are all passionate about the environment and each in their own way are highlighting in their art concerns for the environment, wildlife, and man’s place in the world.
Jane Tomlinson has submitted 3 paintings that convey important, powerful messages of the 'The impact of man', 'The need for man to change' 'What can be done to reset the clock'
Lorna Marrison paints of 8 sizeable and once precious, (though considered expendable), green spaces within the ring-road of Oxford, now lost to tarmac and development. Ecosystems that have disappeared and now forgotten as new generations are unaware they ever existed. A warning about possible new developments. Once gone it is gone forever.
Others like Sheila Raven with her jewellery and Rosalind Duffy with her glass remind us of the wildlife that are very visible and essential parts of the ecosystems that we enjoy.
Julia Loken's Greenman painted in Oak is an image for longevity and the need for sustainability, an ecological symbol for our time.
Eric white reminds us that it is now Autumn, when the earth is bountiful from its growth and maturity over the Summer. That we can now forage the hedgerows along with wildlife to sustain us all through the winter and provide the seeds for new growth in the Spring.
Emma Hallmark paints the Swinford Toll bridge where she wild swims most days throughout the year. Alice in collage depicts the tapestry of growth and wildlife of Longmead Meadow and talks about the project to preserve its biodiverse ecology. To find out more visit: www.longmeadwildlifesite.org.uk
Emma is concerned that the Thames has its pollutants. She fails to remember the last time she glimpsed a Kingfisher along its banks. The Kingfisher is a sign of a healthy river. Alison Holmans includes a ceramic kingfisher to remind us of what we are missing.
Alison also has made windchimes to audibly remind us of the power and freshness of clean air and its dispersal of seed and pollen. The leaves imprinted on her chimes and platters are the seasonal wild leaves from hedgerows and footpaths. In a season some will grow bigger than your arm, such is the power of the sun, earth and water.
Julie Parker using sun power for her cyanotype of a bee, reminds us that the humble bee in all its variation of form are the workers of the land sustaining plant-life and growing ecosystems.
Man impacts as he needs food and introduces farm practices that work against nature and animal care. Alison suggests free range chickens and ducks have a good life and can work along with the local ecology. Kevin Hinton who encourages the local wildlife namely the Hedgehog and Magpie to eat the pests as he ‘Digs’ the soil to grow a diverse crop of vegetables.
Peter Shrimpton with his Whale tail and his actual Whale flying over the 'Fish ponds' is perhaps the hypothetical 'Elephant in the Room' (or 'Whale in the Window') Out of sight and out of mind we are ignoring the impact we are making on Ecosystems further away. A long way from our oceans and seas the whale has a 'tale to tell', of the ongoing abuse and contamination of its habitat by what we throw away. Visibly plastics, but there are also chemicals, poisons and heavy metals that leach out into our rivers and make their way to the sea.
Matt Black refers back to the essence of life and that it has power to survive and start again. Alison Berrett similarly paints in abstract form the ‘Resilience of Nature’. The natural world is our provider and can be our healer. Nature has all the answers and we must work with it to find them and turn this continuing destruction by huge industries and consumerism around. But we need to start now to save what we have left. What of the value and uniqueness of the nature we have lost to never have again? What of the flora and fauna and microscopic organisms that cannot sustain the change or loss of the ecosystem they depend on to survive? Once extinct those plants and animal life cannot ever return. It is not nature that has to change . . . it is Man who has to. Each and everyone of us.
To find out more about the artists visit www.theartofjanetomlinson.com www.lornamarrisonartist.co.uk www.artofglassoxford.co.uk www.loken.co.uk
Instagram: @ericwhite5599 Instagram: @emmahallmarkartist www.alicewalkerart.co.uk www.chickenrunstudio.co.uk www.planetkev.co.uk www.isandd.co.uk @etsy.com/uk/shop/cuckoosnestgallery www.urbansquirreldesign.co.uk www.thecoloursofblack www.alisonberrettartist.com