Exhibition images
Previous Show 2023
Further to the Side Chapel Suite of paintings (exhibition images follow this statement) I have now been asked many times about my involvement with St. Dunstan’s church and why, over the last decade or so, its monochrome details have come to dominate my art.
This is why:
Two weeks before the 2012 London Olympics, walking the dog, I was approached and agreed to be in the church, for a two hour period per week, as one of many volunteers, in order that it was open throughout the month of the two games. To my surprise I found that I enjoyed the experience. Once the Paralympics ended, I could have walked away but realised that I would miss it. I agreed to open the church every Thursday morning 10-12 and continue to do so. I stress that there was no connection with my architectural art – I treated it as a kind of holiday from my usual work. Over a year later it was suggested that I, perhaps, could do small watercolours of details within the building – a medium I had never considered.
Starting with five very basic B/W photographs, I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I still didn’t really consider it as serious art and just enjoyed the fun of this new medium and subject matter.
I soon realised that by accident, far from being parochial, I had found a framework in which I could do the high colour thing that has always been a prime motivation. I proceeded to do scores of A5 sized watercolours which sold, via the church, as Spectrum Fine Art had closed down.
I remember working on one such watercolour and suddenly seeing it as a large painting.
After some difficulty, I found a firm which could enlarge my postcard sized outlines and print it on their large (3m) roll of tracing paper. When I saw the first few, I realised that there was no limit to what I could achieve. I still remember the excitement of putting the first of these over the white primed canvas, with graphite paper sandwiched between, going over the new outline, lifting it off and finding the result beyond my expectation. I still get a kick when I do this now. This has become the basis for all my subsequent work.
Most contemporary art leaves me cold. I have never gone down the part-time teaching route and since moving out of The Metropolitan Warehouse in Wapping many years ago, I mix with no other artists and prefer to work in “splendid isolation”. I do not see myself as being particularly religious (and have no real interest in other church buildings) but St Dunstan’s continues to fascinate. I do not really know why and do not want to know. I am just grateful to have found something that holds me in its grip. Long may it continue.
I.B. January 2024
Exhibition images
Previous Exhibition
Exhibition Images
2020 Exhibition Images
Framed Watercolours
The Church is OPEN every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday
10am - 4pm
I open the Church Thursdays 10am - 12pm
Winter 2020
New Watercolours
Including....
New Watercolours
Including....
“Let’s Go Outside”
St Dunstan’s Church Suite IV
June 7th – August 7th 2019
5 Tall, 2 diamond shaped and 10 square canvases -
St. Dunstan’s & All Saints Church
Stepney High Street London E1 0NR
020 7702 8685
Limehouse DLR Stepney Green Tube
Please ring 020 7702 8685 to confirm opening times
Please note: Ian Brice opens the church, without fail, every Thursday morning 10am to 12pm
Visitors welcome
Visitors welcome
Previous Show 2017
Stone Angels
St. Dunstan's Church Suite III
Twelve Acrylic on Canvas Paintings
Stone Angels
St. Dunstan's Church Suite III
Twelve Acrylic on Canvas Paintings
Previous Show
St. Dunstan's Church Suite II
Twenty Seven Small Framed Panel Paintings
1.
Side Chapel – Orange Window 2015 4.
Interior Detail – Red Section 2015 7.
Roof Beams – Stone Curtain 2016 10.
Interior Detail – Sectional Columns 2015 13.
Interior Detail – Winged Lion 2016 16.
Interior Detail – Blue Columns 2015 19.
Memorial Detail – Grasped Snake 2016 22.
Memorial Detail – Fish & Ring 2016 25.
Chalice – 2015 |
2.
Side Chapel – Ceiling Vaults 2015 5.
Interior Detail – Archway 2015 8.
Roof Beams – Window 2016 11.
Parish Room – Blue Planks 2016 14.
Memorial Detail – Flaming Conch 2016 17.
Memorial Detail – Skull with Laurel 2016 20.
Memorial Detail – Plumed Helmet 2016 23.
Memorial Detail – Red Ribbon 2016 26.
Thorny Crown – 2016 |
3.
Side Chapel – Red Bars 2016 6.
Interior Detail – West Wall 2015 9.
Roof Beams – Sun Rise 2016 12.
Parish Room – Red Internal Window 2015 15.
Interior Detail – Stairwell 2016 18.
Font Detail – 2015 21.
Memorial Detail – Helmet with Cross 2016 24.
Memorial Detail – Lion Rampant 2016 27.
Baptismal Shell – 2015 |