An exhibition of myths, legends and the saints.

In today’s eclectic, educated and globally connected world we have lost the need to work around a calendar, let alone a calendar influenced by seasons and beliefs.

Our markers of time and reminders of why places are named on the map is moving further away from our everyday knowledge but, if you are curious, there are tangible remains all over the landscape, in literature and art.

Pagan stories and traditions of our ancestors were absorbed into Christian culture, brought here by the Romans, the two combining, legends overlapping. Collective memories dissolved legend with historical fact, myth with real people.

Imagery and illustrations captured the great and the good, men and women, often venerated, were the celebrities of their time.

We can discover the fabled and sainted graphically which has provoked art and captured oral traditions of song, legend and sagas.

Icons traverse language and literacy, depicting people, seasons, creatures and place. Many of the symbols are powerful and universal. They communicate an idea or an action. They encourage us to pause, reflect, explore. They can help us to look back and forwards beyond ourselves, providing a sense of place and belonging to an increasingly busy world.

Through my own curiosity about these subjects I hope I have given you something of that sense too.

The silver ‘pictures’ or ‘icons’ are all made from fine silver with 24ct. gold detail. The figurative work is depicted using the ancient technique of chasing and repoussé. Some of the tools I use for this have been passed down through generations of silversmiths and some I have made myself. The gold is applied with the Korean technique of Keum Boo, the silver is heated then the gold foil is burnished on using an agate burnisher.