The Blessing of the Rain

The Blessing of the Rain KIRSTY LORENZ

KIRSTY LORENZ The Blessing of the Rain 6 - 30 JUNE 2018

THE

SCOTTISH

GALLERY

CONTEMPORARY ART SINCE 1842

INTRODUCTION ‘The Blessing of the Rain’ May the blessing of the rain be on youthe soft sweet rain.

May it fall upon your spirit so that all the little flowers may spring up, and shed their sweetness on the air.

May the blessing of the great rains be on you, may they beat upon your spirit and wash it fair and clean, and leave there many a shining pool where the blue of heaven shines, and sometimes a star. an excerpt from a Celtic prayer

Votive Offering No.88 - Honeysuckle after Mary Delany, oil on linen, 30 x 30 cms

Votive Offering’s After Mary Delany

This series of paintings of wild flower posies are inspired by the work of Mary Delany (1700 – 1788), in particular her extraordinary collection of over 1000 botanical studies made in paper ‘mosaiks’ or collage that she created between the age of 72 and 82. The collection of these are held in the archive of The British Museum, where Kirsty was able to spend some time studying them. Her attention to detail, the dark backgrounds and rich palette, and the compositional repetition are reflected in these works. The posies depicted in these paintings were made of wild flowers blooming in rural Fife in June.

Votive Offering No.90 - White Rose after Mary Delany, oil on linen, 40 x 40 cms

Votive Offering No.89 - Herb Robert after Mary Delany, oil on linen, 30 x 30 cms

Votive Offering No92 - Foxglove after Mary Delany, oil on linen, 60 x 40 cms

‘Votive Offerings’ from the first 60 The inspiration for my ‘Votive Offerings’ project began on a research/ field trip to the Outer Hebrides in 2013. I recieved an Artist Award from ‘Fife Contemporary Arts and Crafts’ to go to research the wild flowers growing in the ‘Machair’ lands on the Islands. The wild flowers are incredibly abundant and beautiful. I was overwhelmed by them and wasn’t sure how to work with them, in response I began making, photographing and leaving the wild flower posies.

In 2014 I began painting these posies from the photographs in watercolour on paper and the ‘Votive Offerings’ project evolved from there. I exhibited the first 50 ‘Votive Offerings’, as an installation of 50 works on paper pinned to the wall, at The Society of Scottish Artists Annual Exhibition 2014/15 where it won The Meffan Gallery Solo Exhibition Award.

Votive Offering No.60 – Heartsease & Eyebright, watercolour on paper, 32 x 29 cms

Votive Offering No.4 – Forget me Not, watercolour on paper, 28 x 28 cms

Votive Offerings Balmerino Woods A continuation of ‘Votive Offerings’, these works are a series of paintings of posies made from wild flowers gathered at Balmerino Woods, Fife, in early Spring. The woods are on the firth of the River Tay, opposite Dundee, and have beautiful jewel-like early spring flowers of Celandine, Wood Anemone, Hawthorne blossom etc.

Balmerino had a Cistercian monastic community founded in aprox 1227 by monks from Melrose Abbey, It still had approximately 20 monks at the beginning of the sixteenth century, but declined in that century. This inspired the use of strong blues and gold in some of these works.

These paintings are created with Watercolour, Acrylic, Gouache and Graphite, on paper.

Votive Offering No.66 – Celandine & Spurge, watercolour and acrylic on paper, 26 x 22 cms

Votive Offering No.71 – Celandine & Anemone, watercolour and acrylic on paper, 27 x 22 cms

Votive Offering No.73 – Chestnut, Scots Pine, Ivy, watercolour and acrylic on paper, 80 x 60 cms

Votive Offering No.62 – A Bouquet of Wild Poison is a true to scale depiction of a bouquet composed of poisonous wild flowers gathered in Fife including Foxgloves, Ragwort, Hemlock and Honeysuckle tied with Ivy. It asks questions about the giver and receiver of the bouquet and the meaning of this gift. It was first exhibited at St.Andrews Museum in a group exhibition ‘Exquisite Corpse’ curated by The Society of Scottish Artists.

Votive Offering No.62 - A Bouquet of Wild Poison, oil on linen, 120 x 80 cms

Glory

The ‘Glory’ paintings are a series of giant votives, large scale oil paintings on linen, depicting posies of wild Scottish flowers made (and left) by the artist around Scotland.

Flowers depicted include Cowslip, Forget-me-not, Wild Strawberry, Apple Blossom, White Campion, etc. all quite small scale in nature. The large scale depictions of them and the gold and silver backgrounds celebrate their beauty, detail and preciousness.

Votive Offering No.81 - Apple Blossom on Silver, oil on linen, 110 x 110 cms

Votive Offering No.83 – Cowslip on Gold, oil on linen, 110 x 110 cms

Gift

‘Gift’ is an installation of a film and a painting. The short film is of Sea Squill and Rock Rose growing beside a sparkly sea on Orkney.

The film is meditative, an ants eye view of the flowers in the breeze and the arrival of a small spider. A hand then picks the flowers. The painting is of the posy created from the flowers, a gift offered to the viewer.

This was one of three works made in reponse to a research trip to Orkney where the artist worked with filmmaker Mark Jenkins.

Gift, watercolour and acrylic on paper, 43 x 35 cms

About Kirsty Lorenz is a visual artist for whom flowers are a central subject, depicting them in different ways and contexts through painting, drawing, mixed media and installation.

‘Deep in their roots all flowers hold the light’ Theodore Roethke ‘Votive Offerings’ is her current and ongoing project. Begun in 2014, it is a series of portrayals of wild flower posies she is making and leaving around Scotland, and further afield. The work explores the motif of the posy as gift, prayer or message, as well as the poetics of the act of making and leaving the posies in different environments or locations.

She is based at her unusual studio on Platform 2, Ladybank Railway Station in Fife. Ladybank Station is a still functioning station on the line from Edinburgh to Dundee. Built c.1850 her studio rooms used to be the old station restaurant which she renovated to create the studio in 2009.

She studied at Goldsmiths College, London 1989-92, then was Hospital Arts Co-ordinator for Artlink-Edinburgh until 2001 when she returned to making her own artwork.

Photography Š Kirsty Lorenz All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders and of the publishers.