Lead Light, Paintings, Drawings, Prints
Visual Artist Jan Palethorpe has been working with the figure of “The Angel” for decades. The image of the Angel represents many forces, thoughts, concerns and feelings which occupy her artistic practice.
In this mystical exhibition, “Angels in Glass”, the Artist has been inspired by the ethereal leadlight windows at the Cascade Art Gallery in Maldon, which is itself a piece of outstanding Gothic Revival architecture built in 1863.
In collaboration with a professional lead light worker, Jan Palethorpe has designed five stunning leadlight angels standing approximately 1 – 2 metres in height in diamond and rectangular forms.
Light by its very nature when it moves through rich ruby red, harmonious blue and green shades and golden- yellow glass, creates beautiful sun-drenched secondary pictures. Imagined Angels are the perfect subject for lead light and these contemporary additions of Palethorpe’s, add to a long tradition of angels in glass. They are one-off unique Art pieces.
Jan Palethorpe is based in central Victoria however spends quite a bit of her professional life in China and the Asia Pacific teaching English as a second language, sharing understandings as an unofficial Cultural Ambassador for The Arts, universal goodwill and works within the Humanist tradition of The Arts.
Her artwork is sometimes vibrantly coloured watercolour paintings, sometimes subdued monotone chine colle etchings with Yves Kline blue boats on the horizon, and sometimes Chinese mountainous landscapes with the suggestion of an angel emerging from the watery depths.
The artist has said of her work “The angel often represents cultural displacement and the incongruity of the émigré. The inevitable shifting movement across the globe of those seeking refuge – their endurance and the deep longing for connection to homelands.”
The plight of the dispossessed and their courage in the face of adversity as is the case of the artwork Hollow Angel Émigré which won the Swan Hill Drawing Prize in 2010, reveals this pre-occupation of the Artist with a concern for others and their wellbeing.
This is the first time Jan Palethorpe has worked in leadlight in a site-specific responsive manner to create a body of new artwork for exhibition – it is a must see!
