Chronicle January 2021

38 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Let There be Light Creating a Triptych By Peter Lloyd-Jones

The Church of St Nicholas of Myra at Ozleworth in Gloucestershire has always been a place of great calm for me. A tiny, now “redundant” church which dates back 900 years, it is where my wife and I were married. I went there to consider my altarpiece dilemma and noticed for the first time a tiny gold mosaic of the sun and moon set into the corner of a decorative panel. It was a perfect design albeit in miniature and would provide an unexpected inspiration for my sun. For the walls adjacent to the sun, I wanted two further roundels to symbolise the shape of the globe and to echo the shape of the sun. Around their edges in bright colours I would represent artists, musicians, academics, healers, educators, builders and thinkers based loosely on saints, united by a common language but dominated in scale by the sun and the crucifix. I would place the figures at the outer edges as a reminder of how vulnerable we are as a race. I wanted the figures to be small but bright, to stand out from a distance. So first some preliminary sketches then some scale drawings, followed by three actual-size coloured drawings. I took my finished designs to the Design Department who converted the drawings to digital files from which the three main background structures were cut using one of the school’s flatbed routers. The alchemy of gilding is as old as art and has never been bettered. For impact and light, I wanted my sun to be gold leaf so I took it on the roof of my car to master gilders Simon and Julie Cooper who, before preparing the surface for the water gilding, hand carved and added a further sixteen flames and many other textural

In 2019, the Warden asked me if I could produce a design for the three grey walls behind the altar in the chapel. It was quite austere and could certainly be brightened up. I said I would have to think about it but knew it was a job that I wanted to do. presented a challenge – creating something new always does. So, the thought process and research began. On a trip to the new school library I discovered a wonderful collection of books on Early Christian art donated by Rev Wippell, a former Chaplain at St Edward's. A visit to my favourite rooms at the National Gallery to view the wondrous artworks from Siena and Florence and to sit in front of my favourite painting, Paolo Uccello’s Battle of San Romano , served up further inspiration. My initial thoughts centred around a sun that could bring actual physical light to the focal point of the chapel, the dark wooden crucifix on the altar. But how best to achieve this sun, for it to be appropriate for the chapel and to fit within my whole design? Questions abounded: How was it to bring I had a pretty clear idea of what I intended from the outset but the project still

focus to the crucifix and not be the focal point itself? What should it be made from? Should my sun be rising or setting? Should it be reflective or have a light source of its own? How big should it be? How would it look by day and by night? Would it be fixed, suspended or even projected? A very quick search on the internet only served to exacerbate my quandaries with a plethora of distracting images and information. I sympathized with my pupils who, I feel, can suffer from online image bombardment – counterproductive and confusing, creating less space for original thinking.

‘It’s great to have art in Chapel because it helps us to make

spiritual things perceptible and attractive. We get to translate the invisible things of God into colours and shapes which nourish our sense of faith. And it’s great to be reminded that we can use our creativity to explore the mystery of God.’ REV LENNON, CHAPLAIN