WORDS AND MUSIC PROJECT

The works displayed in Words and Music are personal responses of two Artists, Shirley Anne Owen and Geraldus John to man's creative outlets of literature and Music.

Whilst in much of her work, Shirley Anne Owen has explored the world of literature Geraldus John has, with a few exceptions, restricted himself to music.

After reading works by R.S.Thomas, Gillian Clarke and Dylan Thomas; Shirley Anne Owen has revisited familiar subjects, taking another, different look at them. The paintings and drawings are not intended to be illustrations of specific examples of poetry or prose but rather follow a theme suggested by them. People, places and animals all have their place.

Geraldus John has examined the fascinating relationship between fine Art and Music and endeavoured to capture the essence of each composer and set it down in paint–nothing less than transference from one medium to another. Many of the paintings contain well-known images relating to specific works, which can be a key to composer identity. Others make liberal use of abstraction, perhaps, in deference to Music, which is often regarded as an abstract form.

Links have been forged between musical colours and the colours used in related works-for instance, the strong contrast between the strident browns and reds of Appassionato with the cold colours and sophistication of Mahagonny represent the contrasting colour essences of the two very different composers Beethoven and Kurt Weill.

Of all composers Schubert should be given special mention. He, above all, possessed a unique and delicate perception of musical colour. He was able to apply hues transparent enough to allow light to illuminate and to filter through his music- truly an artist's painter.

Also exhibited are a series of poems by Geraldus John, which are complementary to the paintings. These relate to the subject matter and create word pictures in their own right.

The exhibition is presented as an interweave of literature, music and fine art.

Biographical details Shirley Anne Owen

Shirley Anne Owen was born in the rural Vale of Glamorgan and is now based in the seaside town of Penarth. She studied at Cardiff and Newport Colleges of Art (1962 – 1967) and then worked as a Medical Artist. A long break due to family commitments followed with a return to full time art practice in 1996.
“ I draw on the South Wales urban, industrial and rural landscape for my subjects, exploring ordinary, everyday activities and the familiar environment by making drawings in ink or charcoal. These are freely interpreted in acrylic, oils or mixed media. The work is characterised by a freedom of expression which gives it a strong sense of vitality and light.”
She is an active member of VOGA (Vale of Glamorgan Artists), a group of professional visual artists living in the Vale, and took part in recent group exhibitions in Germany and France. As well as regular solo and group exhibitions many commissions have been completed including one for the Vale of Glamorgan Council.

Biographical details Geraldus John

Geraldus John was born in West Glamorgan and studied chemical engineering. He has lived in Wales all his life but spent periods abroad in his work with a major oil company. He travelled extensively throughout Europe and the Middle East. Travel and industrial experience have been important influences on his painting. He is an early member of the Vale of Glamorgan Artists and has exhibited extensively with the group as well as holding several one-man exhibitions. He has also worked in conjunction with artist Shirley Anne Owen in the DEM AND PROG annual exhibitions at the Norwegian Church Arts Centre. He works mostly in oils and mixed media and has an interest in the decay and regeneration of industrial landscape. Work is bold with strong colours exercised over a wide tonal range. Recently, he has investigated links between Fine Art and Music.

My series “An die Musik” examines the relationship between Fine Art and Music. It is an attempt to capture the essence of each composer and set it down in paint-a transference from one medium to another. In many of the works I have introduced well-known images, which can be a key to the composer’s identity. In others I lean towards abstraction, perhaps in deference to music’s predominantly abstract form.
The work in my “An die Music Series” brings together two of my prime interests: Music and Art.

WORDS AND MUSIC GALLERY

Below is seen an online Words and Music Gallery showing the poems of Geraldus John and the paintings of Shirley Anne Owen and Geraldus John. Because of limited viewing space some of the works are not on display in the Traveller’s Gallery.


1 Poems by Geraldus John
2 Paintings by Shirley Anne Owen
3 Paintings by Geraldus John

Artist by Geraldus John

Hesitating,
the artist
engages with
and manipulates
scarce light.

Gaining
confidence
as fresh
inspirations
begin to bite.

Dominating
and taming
unruly forces
with shameless
delight.

Struggling,
with dread,
to displace
sullen shadows
of approaching night.

Aghast
by failure
inevitable
errors
incite.

Leonora by Geraldus John

While the minimal and unobtrusive tapping
Of the hangman resonates from behind,
Freedom hammers on the prison gate.
The Fidelio four invoke harmonies
Which, with uncultivated beauty,
Innocently bewilder and implant
In all a sense of a false security.
Following a brief diminuendo
The plot lacking crystal clarity
Progresses but poses vital questions:
Can the master, with discipline and stealth,
Achieve clarification by resolution?

As if in answer the voltage jolts, trumpets soar,
And emotion charged with a kinetic tension
That even formality can scarce contain,
Lets out a searing cry of deliverance.
For this was, of all his conceptions, the one
That gave the cruellest of birth pains.

Smouldering with tonal sincerity
Creativity is the bedrock of passion,
A woman dedicated to a love
Capable of piercing prison walls,
A dreamer exploring the essence of her nightmare
From which she alone can distil reality,
Reality that enables her to rekindle hope,
Hope that compensates her feminine frailty.

Meanwhile, with cold blooded intention,
The fiend turns a nasty situation
Into his, even nastier, advantage.
Timpani and brass vigorously vibrate
To spit and splutter in protestation
As they anticipate Armageddon.
But right prevails as, with eerie crescendos,
Bone drying winds rattle the graveyard and horns,
Anticipating Wagnarian grandeur,
Induce turbulent woodwinds to pause;
Then wallow in the delights of victory.

Sheltering in a glow of forgiveness
All unite in a visionary coda,
And proceed with incandescent intensity
To rest in the surreal sound of silence.

Sea Pictures by Geraldus John

Cotton wool clouds
curdling
bobbing
tumbling white,
enthusiastically
dissolved
by indolent seas.


Reluctant tide
slopping
idly plopping
lazily singing
solitary songs,
dragging sands
beneath slaphappy seas.


Ill tempered winds
rising
screaming
lashing out,
aggressively
inciting
heartless seas.


Scattered clouds
reforming,
Shattered tides
recovering,
Gentle winds courteously
calming
capricious seas.

The Red Priest by Geraldus John

1

Roused by the resonance
Of "il prete rosso"
Textures thicken,
Yet, remaining transparent,
Swirl in and out of a sea
Of splendid colour,
Persistently seeking peace
In resolution.

11

Vivacious vibratos
Crippled by wild impulses,
Call clod-hopping ghosts
To clump about in ill fitting boots,
But retain character enough
To roam the heavens and snatch
Cold shivering modes
From the scarce music of spheres.

111

Striding towards conclusion,
Vivaldi boldly plucks,
From the starry cluster
Within his vast output,
An icy glittering gem:
Sly catalyst to musical shivers,
Wise mediator between
Soloist and orchestra,
Untimely coda
To a scintillating fluency.

Why do Nations Rage? ( Chichester Psalms ) by Geraldus John

Jubilant voices descending from heaven
Crash into orchestral chattering,
"Awake! Awake my soul, I will arouse the dawn."

Buoyant bongos cavort and infuse
Spirited dances with throbbing energy
To give a strong hint of West Side Story.
This is no sopoforic church service.

Man exists in his infinite smallness,
God broods in his heavenly abode,
"Enter! Enter into His gates without misgiving."

The frailty of the alto contrasts
The robustness of the warring psalm,
" Why! Why do the nations rage." A grim intrusion
That fails to silence the message of accord
And is destroyed, then swept asunder
By the sweet song of the shepherd psalmist.

With pure theatre, insecure voices mock
Man's atonal attempt to deliver
A message of vision and everlasting hope.
Hope for a world at peace within itself,
Peace wherein all will fear no evil.

"How pleasant it is to dwell in unity".

Symphony Fantastique by Geraldus John

Off stage a cello plays alone
A brown diminuendo fiercely driving
Forward the oboe's vulnerable crescendo.
While violins, seductively soothing as they are,
Enlighten, with silvery voices,
The frenetic power of orchestral thunder.

Littered with instructions, the score
Stretches the conductor's imagination.
Until, without warning, a quartet of discords
Goes off like a cracker in the hand,
And under the influence of the master
Youthful imagination runs riot.

Aggressively, upper strings dominate,
And the Dies Ire is sung and mocked
Intermingling horror with high jinks.
Suddenly the fiery blaze of Berlioz,
Switching into a Beethovian trajectory
Startles, then cedes with a devilish jig fugue.

J S B by Geraldus John

With delightful bounce a canopy
Of obsessive oboes intermingle
With a host of triumphal trumpets.
Magic moment in a memorable movement,
Ephemeral but never forgotten,
Borne by the dust of a bygone age.

Earthbound and living dangerously
The music leaves its heavenly loft
To become, perhaps, too much of a good thing.
Its unbearable beauty and poise stirs
And charms all with the Air on the G string.

With bold and tasteful ornamentation
The soliloquy gently fades to silence,
And signals that it can only be
The ineffable master J S B.

Ploughing the Hill by Shirley Anne Owen

Morning Milk by Shirley Anne Owen

After the Gather by Shirley Anne Owen

The Evacuee by Shirley Anne Owen

Lead the Mare to Stable by Shirley Anne Owen

Working the Land by Shirley Anne Owen

Working in the Field by Shirley Anne Owen

Close the Gate by Shirley Anne Owen

At the Sale by Shirley Anne Owen

Cob Class by Shirley Anne Owen

Leaving by Shirley Anne Owen

Why do Nations Rage by Geraldus John

Wolfgang by Geraldus John

Samiel by Geraldus John

Salome by Geraldus John

Rusticana by Geraldus John

Rise and Fall of Mahagonny by Geraldus John

Giacomo by Geraldus John

An die Musik by Geraldus John

Gretel by Geraldus John

Mahagonny by Geraldus John

Appasionato by Geraldus John

Aphrodite by Geraldus John