Simon Averill 'Borrowed Light'

S I M O N AV E R I L L BORROWED LIGHT

If we study Japanese art, we discover a man who is undeniably wise, philosophical and intelligent, who spends his time - doing what? Studying the distance from the earth to the moon? No! Studying the politics of Bismarck? No! He studies… A single blade of grass. But this blade of grass leads him to draw all the plants – then the season, the grand spectacle of landscapes... That is how he spends his life, and life is too short to do everything. So come, isn’t what we are taught by these simple Japanese, who live in nature as if they themselves were flowers, almost a true religion? And one cannot study Japanese art, it seems to me, without becoming merrier and happier, and we should turn back to nature in spite of our education and our work in a conventional world.

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, 14th September 1888

‘Borrowed Light’ indicates a significant development in Simon Averill’s work since his last solo show ‘Minutiae’ held at Goldfish in 2007. This previous exhibition, constituted an attempt to get closer to nature mainly through analysis of the inanimate, found and discarded, often gathered whilst walking. As I said in my catalogue introduction at the time – Averill’s focus is on the overlooked, disregarded, and his elevation of it to a celebration of the things around us that help make up the whole…

This collection of work also enables the viewer to look through the eyes of an artist who is very much in touch with the world around him, but it ups the ante by aiming to capture the most elusive and animated of things: light. As Leonardo Da Vinci stated ‘Look at light and admire its beauty. Close your eyes, and then look again: what you saw is no longer there; and what you will see later is not yet’. This artistic manifestation implies a sense of mortal allegory. To capture and contain light is to defy the ephemeral.

Averill seems to preserve the simplest and most ordinary of experiences and turn them into flat, contemplative shrines that suggest that we should not take a moment for granted, for such humble beauty is fleeting and transitory. Averill’s quiet, enlightened approach seems so at odds with the bustle of the 21st Century, but these are not paintings about the temporary nature of our times, they are paintings that make permanent the fleetingness of existence. From the most minute to the most humble of experiences.

Averill’s respect for his subject is maintained technically through the application of his medium. The works are built in a multitude of layers, which creates extraordinary depth, translucence and a vitreous quality of surface; it is as if the works are illuminated from within. It is impossible to capture these qualities in reproduction, they become revealed only when the work is seen in the flesh and you are able to get up close.

Averill is an artist who demonstrates an acute affinity with his surroundings, a close observer of the natural world who translates this love and understanding into exquisite paintings that contain an intense intimacy without ever becoming illustrative or pastiche.

He fulfils an aspirational role for the 21st Century artist. It would do us no harm as a society, to develop such acute understanding and primal intimacy with the natural world. What could be more pertinent than trying to redress that balance at this time?

13th Century, Zen master Dogen Zenji claimed that enlightenment is intimacy with all things. This is an overriding consideration when looking at Averill’s expanding oeuvre.

Joseph Clarke

1

The Space In Between (Diffused Light) acrylic on primed wood panel . 74 x 123 cm

2

3

The Space In Between (Diffused Light I) acrylic on primed wood panel . 123 x 81 cm 4

The Space In Between (Diffused Light III) acrylic on primed wood panel . 59 x 69 cm 5

In Full Light acrylic on primed wood panel . 61 x 81 cm 6

In Full Light II acrylic on primed wood panel . 61 x 81 cm 7

8

Close Horizon acrylic on primed wood panel . 82 x 122 cm

9

Light Interior I acrylic on primed wood panel . 61 x 102 cm

10

11

Light Field acrylic on primed wood panel . 61 x 81 cm 12

Light Enclosure II acrylic on primed wood panel . 69 x 79 cm 13

Light Enclosure acrylic on primed wood panel . 61 x 81 cm 14

Shadow Line acrylic on primed wood panel . 61 x 81 cm 15

Points of Light acrylic on primed wood panel . 74 x 123 cm

16

17

Things Fall Apart acrylic on primed wood panel . 80 x 57 cm 18

Moving Apart II acrylic on primed wood panel . 82 x 61 cm 19

Shadow Lines acrylic on primed wood panel . 40 x 61 cm 20

Light Ground acrylic on primed wood panel . 61 x 104 cm 21

Shadow Painting acrylic on primed wood panel . 40 x 61 cm 22

Shadow Painting II acrylic on primed wood panel . 40 x 61 cm 23

Illumine acrylic on primed wood panel . 61 x 46 cm 24

Reflected Light - Reflected II acrylic on primed wood panel . 61 x 46 cm 25

26

Borrowed Light acrylic on primed wood panel . 61 x 81 cm

27

Near Light acrylic on primed wood panel . 61 x 102 cm 28

Near Light Distant Light acrylic on primed wood panel . 61 x 102 cm 29

30

Broken Reflection II

Broken Reflection III

acrylic on primed wood panel . 91 x 61 cm

acrylic on primed wood panel . 91 x 61 cm

Light Disturbance acrylic on primed wood panel . 61 x 102 cm 31

Selected CV 1981-85 University of Brighton (BA Hons Fine Art) 1987-present Member of the Newlyn Society of Artists 1989-present Part-time teaching at University College Falmouth Solo Exhibitions 1988 1993 1996 1998 2000 2002 2006 2007 2009

Salthouse Gallery, St. Ives, Cornwall Cleveland Bridge Gallery, Bath The Independent Art Space, London, Wilson Stephens Fine Art The Gallery in Cork Street, London, Wilson Stephens Fine Art Wilson Stephens Fine Art, Walton Street, London Albemarle Street, with Wilson Stephens Fine Art John Martin Gallery, London Goldfish, Penzance, Cornwall Millennium, St. Ives, Cornwall

Selected Group Exhibitions 1984 1989 1990 1991 1992

1994 1995 1997 1998 1999 2002 2003 2004 2005

2006

2007

Royal Academy of Arts, London. Stowells Trophy Exhibition Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall. Four-person show Plymouth Museum, Devon. The South West Open Stephen Bartley Gallery, London. ‘Cornwall a contemporary view’ Plymouth Arts Centre and Truro Museum, South West Open 7 Artistes Celtes’ at Chateau de Kerjean, Brittany RWA Bristol. ‘Artists from Cornwall’ Millfield Open Exhibition, Street, Somerset Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery, Devon. ‘Strandline’ Plein 1 Gallery, Zeist, Holland. Four-person show Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall. ‘Falmouth Connections’ Amersfoort, Holland. ‘Artists from Cornwall’ Christie’s, London. National Trust Centenary Exhibition.

Wilson Stephen Fine Art, London. Spring Exhibition Wilson Stephens Fine Art, London. ‘Panel Paintings’ RWA, Bristol. ‘Newlyn Society of Artists’ Festival Hall, Navy Pier, Chicago. ‘Art 1999 Chicago Wilson Stephens Fine Art, Walton Street, London. Mixed show Wilson Stephens Fine Art, Walton Street, London. Panel Paintings The Beardsmore Gallery, London. Mixed Exhibition The Mall Gallery, London. ‘The Discerning Eye’ The Lynne Strover Gallery, Cambridge. 4-person show New Millennium Gallery, St. Ives, Cornwall. Mixed show The Campden Gallery. Mixed show. Chipping Campden Lemon Street Gallery, Truro. ‘Critics Choice’ (selected by Norbert Lynton) Goldfish, Penzance. Mixed show NSA Summer Show, Goldfish, Penzance Sherborne House. ‘Margins’ mixed exhibition Vyner Street, London. ‘Move’ mixed exhibition

2008

Goldfish. ‘Mixed / No Theme’ mixed show Newlyn Art Gallery: The Exchange. ‘The drawing show’ (selected

by Kate Macfarlane & Mary Doyle) Millennium, Winter Mixed, St. Ives, Cornwall Millennium, Mixed, St. Ives, Cornwall RWA, Bristol, A Cornish Perspective, NSA

2009

Newlyn Art Gallery, Critics Choice Exhibitions 1989 1990 1991 1997 1998 2000 2003 2004

Tim Hilton Peter Fuller Francis Graham-Dixon David Lee Theo Waddington Charlotte Mullings Joan Bakewell John Russell-Taylor

Art Fairs 1991-2004 1993-2009

2000 2005

The Royal College of Arts, London. 20/21 British Art Fair, WSFA London Art Fair, Business Design Centre, Islington, London The Duke of York’s Headquarters, Chelsea. ‘Art London’ Burton’s Court, Chelsea. ‘Art London’

Published by Millennium to coincide with the exhibition ‘Borrowed Light’ by Simon Averill All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publishers

Printed by Control Print, Redruth

ISBN 978-1-905772- 27-8

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