Painting Now:
Three Contemporary Approaches
Open daily: Fri 3 – Sun 12 Oct | 11am–6pm | Art Pavillion Mile End Park
Three Buddhists with a full-time professional painting practice: Abhayavajra Newman, Clare Barton-Harvey (Amitajyoti), Hugh Mendes (Paramabodhi), exhibiting at the Art Pavilion at Mile End Park, walking distance from the LBC.
Join us for the opening night on Thu 2 Oct, 6–9pm. The gallery will be open daily from Fri 3 – Sun 12 Oct, 11–6pm.
Special event: Sat 11 Oct, 1.30–3.30pm – Artists talks in the gallery space. On this special afternoon event, hear from the artists themselves, about their inspiration, key ideas, and individual approach to painting.
Artist Bios
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Clare Barton-Harvey (Amitajyoti)
My work is an exploration of the ‘nature of mind', with an emphasis on communication and collaboration between the human and more-than-human e.g. trees, plants and insects. The calligraphic drawings, paintings and writings that I create, are expressions of these communications, which often take place over several days, and have a social or ecological dimension to them. Meditative practices weave through my work, which engages my whole body and a range of scale and materials, including raw linen, paper, tempera, brush, feather and foraged/found materials.
Abhayavajra Newman
Any painting presents a dichotomy - that the covering of a surface makes possible an uncovering of meaning. This mysterious fact has fascinated and challenged me through many decades of engaging with, teaching, and making paintings. I’ve also been a practising Buddhist, as well as a painter, for the past 30 years and sometimes I’ve caught glimpses of the resonance between such mysteries as offered by paintings, and the truths communicated by Buddhism. I’m always ‘finding out’. My work uses the basic elements of painting - the boundaries and interrelationships between basic colours and forms - less in an attempt to create, more to discover meaning.
Hugh Mendes (Paramabodhi)
My work these days is executed within the context of still life, in a made up newspaper format. So that it is trompe l'oeil and illusionistic. The main theme is impermanence, the touchstone of Buddhism and one could say of reality. The paintings are dominated by my 'Obituary' series, especially of other artists, so that as well as being universal, it is quite personal. Of course they are also celebratory memorials of people I respect and admire, not just from the history of art and culture. The sustained concentration required also relates to Buddhist meditation practice. The paintings are essentially meditations on death and celebrations of life.
