First World War | RHYMES&REASONS

March 16, 2018

The Red Hat

Sometimes I’m asked about the stories behind my paintings. More often than not they’re personal to me and I prefer to leave the viewer to connect (or not) in their own way so that the image becomes meaningful to them. However, this year I have been working on a collection inspired by the World Wars in particular the First, the end of which in 1918 left a trail of fragmented families and shattered lives.

I’m not even sure that ‘inspired’ is the right word – how can you be inspired by such carnage, such ‘….guttering, choking, drowning ….’ as Wilfred Owen wrote? I think it would be more correct to say I’m awed by the people who were there and those who were left behind, by their ability to ‘carry on’ in the face of extreme adversity. It’s this ability of a human spirit to navigate the unknown, the uncertainty, the highs and the awful lows which speaks to me. During those long endured years the highs were to be snatched and savoured, wherever and whenever possible, moments and memories created eagerly, providing new escape routes for an anxious mind. Like buying a new hat.

A year ago I attended a talk by Magnum social photographer David Hurn. Now in his eighties he was both fascinating and entertaining, not just for his wonderful images but for his personal and insightful stories. He’d never considered becoming a photographer until one day he picked up a copy of ‘Picture Post’ and saw a photograph which changed the whole course of his life. The image was of a Russian Army Officer buying his wife a hat in a Moscow department store. It moved him to tears as it reminded him of how his own father, home on leave from the Second World War, had taken his mother to buy a hat. In that moment he realised the power an image can have on it’s viewer and he was hooked.

This story only came into my mind as I was in the final stages of painting ‘The Red Hat’. The woman wearing it is my maternal grandmother ‘nana’ – her husband I never knew even though I carry his genes. As a career naval man he survived the First World War and despite being in his mid fifties was called up for the Second, which he did not. I don’t know what to call him – grandfather or grandad implies a familiarity which we never enjoyed. I’d never seen a photograph of him until last year and it was a powerful moment, to witness for the first time someone who I recognised despite never having met. It moved me to tears too.

This series of paintings called ‘Futility’ – a reference to Wilfred Owen’s poem of this name – is my way of acknowledging his existence and contribution, of weaving some kind of relationship between grandparent and grandchild. So the paintings are full of stories, not just mine but other people’s. As for the hat, I don’t know whether it was red or not so I indulged in a little artistic licence!

‘The Red Hat’

Rebecca Pells Fine Art

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February 27, 2018

The Lost Art of Letter Writing

Letter writing by hand is a lost art.

In an age of digital swiping, likes and emoji’s, putting pen to paper is considered so last century! But I miss it – both the writing and especially the receiving.

There is something visceral about a hand written letter; it requires the will to make the effort to sit and be still for a few minutes or more, to concentrate and compose, unaided by ‘Alexa’ or auto-correction. It’s an ongoing conversation, into which we can ease ourselves, share more of our feelings than we may be willing to risk face to face. It’s the passing of a moment from the sender to the recipient, bearing not only a postmark but the hallmarks of our personality, our quirks and flaws scribed in ink.

During the First and Second World Wars letters were emotional lifelines, the only means of communication between family and friends. They were precious, longed for and savoured, read and re-read, kissed and cried over. The physical nature of the letter was as important as the words it conveyed, a small but tactile presence which was able to transcend the dividing miles, transporting the author into the private domain of the recipient. Letters which were so precious they were often kept for years, the faded handwriting belying the central role they played in so many lives.

In today’s instant society where even greeting cards are sent digitally is there still a place for a hand written letter ? We are once again embracing the audible richness and variety of vinyl and the depth and perception of photographic film both of which transcend the sterile perfection of digital. I would love to think that for personal messages at least letter writing can enjoy a similar revival.

‘Letter Home’ mixed media original painting available from Rebecca Pells Fine Art

35 Comments

November 12, 2017

PLATOON of POPPIES

♦

“Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.”

♦

Quote from Dulcet et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen

On the 11th day of the 11th month 1918 Wilfred’s mother received news that her son had not survived.

He lost his life just six days before the armistice.

‘Platoon of Poppies‘ by Rebecca Pells Fine Art

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August 20, 2017

Mud and a Meeting of Minds 1917

Mud.

Thick, cloying, seeping.

Consuming, filthy, blanket

binding you as brothers

in mud laden arms.

Bath.

Soap, water, scrub.

Submerged, aching, wallowing

purging you as brothers

in trenches of white.

Search.

Memories, mind, self.

Trapped, engulfed, besieged

chains you as brothers

in images of hell.

Write.

Poetry, prose, horror.

Dredge, expose, release

links you as brothers

in words of truth.

Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the first meeting between Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon at Craiglockhart War Hospital August 1917

The meeting lead to Owen’s haunting ‘war poems’. He was born in Oswestry and lived in my home town of Shrewsbury, England.

‘Poppies for Peace’ Rebecca Pells

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July 1, 2016

The Somme 100 Years

1st July 1916 marked the start of this bloody battle

57,470 casualties

19,240 died

And that was just the British

In a single day.

♦

Today

in a fractured Great Britain

on the cusp of cutting ties of friendship with Europe.

Least we forget the terribly consequences of political failure.

Peace must be prized above all else.

(Installation by UK artist Carl Jaycock)

5 Comments

March 28, 2016

Easter 1916 – Was it Yesterday?

‘Was it Yesterday’ by Rebecca Pells

available from https://www.artfinder.com/product/was-it-yesterday/

A few moths ago I attended the launch of a book written by the father of a friend. First published in 1928/29, ‘Was it Yesterday?’ by A M Bown recounts his experiences in France during the First World War. For many years it remained out of print until his son and daughter, themselves now into their 80’s, realised that his story would be of interest to many others and so they set about the task of re-publishing.

‘When he volunteered in 1914, A M Bown was a twenty year old scholar at Oxford (university) studying science. He became an artillery subaltern and remained one throughout the First World War, being wounded twice and gaining the Military Cross for bravery. This book, although fictionalised, grew out of his personal experiences and is a vivid and authentic account.

He tells of ordinary day-to-day incidents, some amusing, some frightening, and gives a sense of real lives – and real deaths. He keeps throughout a respect for his fellow soldiers, saying:

“So this little team in khaki stood waiting for the starting gun . . . in the greatest game of all, and whatever share the fields of Eton (college) may have had in any winning of it, the same share must be credited to the back alleys and the cinder patches, the parks and the recreation grounds which had been the nurseries of most of those who stood together in that forward line, picked to play for England.” ‘

Inspired by Bown’s story and with his family’s permission, I painted ‘Was it Yesterday?’ The opened book sits upon a table from around 1916. Original wallpaper tinged with ‘forget-me-not’ blue symbolizes the fading of memories of a time long since gone but which also bears witness to the present – a jug of fresh spring daffodils and bright scarf cast aside in a hurried moment. So intense are the events of which the author writes, that they feel like they happened only yesterday.

‘Was it Yesterday?’ by A M Bown

available from

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Was-Yesterday-M-Bown/dp/1909644595/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459161959&sr=8-1&keywords=was+it+yesterday+a+m+bown

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November 1, 2015

Remembrance

POPPIES

The act of remembrance is also a reminder that we are still here, standing at the new horizon as the old makes a distant retreat. The lost horizon is always there, carried within us but the act of remembrance focuses our gaze upon it. A portal through which we approach that fading vista, remembrance offers up the door through which we are beckoned by our lost loves – by those we are in gratitude to – but through which we can never fully walk. Forever kept apart on the threshold of what was and what is we are either the memory or the memorised, we cannot reside betwix the two.

We are the life which has come from death. In the viscerous fog of our mourning comes the lucent mist of our own morning. For some there is heartbreak, still fresh, tender and yet to form time’s cradling scar. Exposed and raw it is the sweet burden of loving someone who is now beyond our reach. We have been asked to let go but as yet, cannot – haunted by a presence which is no longer present. Remembrance helps us to release gently that which was not ours to keep, it enables us to step into our own discarded clothes once again, where we will re-discover the familiar shape and form of our own life and inhabit it once more just as we are supposed to do.

With remembrance comes responsibility to go on, to live our lives as a precious cherished gift from those we now remember.

My grandfather Claude Pells (seated) with an ‘Unknown Soldier’

during the First World War. My grandfather survived the trenches of France and lived into his 80’s.

I do not know the fate of his brother in arms.

♦

POPPIES from one of my paintngs. To see more of my work click here.

11 Comments

October 3, 2015

Patterns

Patterns are everywhere. Life is made up of them. We are their product. From the extraordinary beauty of a single snowflake to the relative simplicity of the double helix which forms our DNA, patterns dominate life. Nature produces them over and over, evolving yes but still within the boundaries of a recognisable pattern. Man has replicated them from ancient times, everywhere you look you will find a pattern, not always obvious, sometimes we must seek them out.

There is a comfort in patterns, familiar, predictable they have boundaries and therefore a certainty about what has been, what is happening and what is yet to come. Patterns dictate our behaviour too. The rebellious teenager who pushes the boundaries of parental control and wisdom, wanting to forge their own path, unaware that they too are following an age old pattern. They do not, however always work in our favour. Behavioural patterns can be destructive, like a mutating cancer replicating it’s ugly cells the pattern forges forth, carried by belief that we are right, ignoring all evidence to the contrary.

I recently visited an installation by UK artist Carl Jaycock in a local church. Photographs of all the men and women from Shropshire who lost their lives in the First World War – including Shropshire born poet Wilfred Owen – were formed into the shape of shell cases. Alongside the beautiful floor tiles this human pattern was a haunting sight. All those involved in that dreadful war unwittingly became part of the pattern of history.

In recent weeks Germany has lead the way welcoming those seeking refuge from Syria and other ravaged countries. There is a collective will to break the historical dysfunctional pattern of their homeland and create a new one – for some perhaps a form of absolution. But scratch a little beneath the surface as one journalist did and the old prejudicial pattern is soon revealed, veiled but by no means dormant. Collective will is shunned when reality challenges the pull of our individual autonomy and the old destructive pattern snaps sharply back into place. Like the rebellious teenager we refuse to listen to wisdom even when we know the consequences may be devastating.

Why do we repeatedly do the same things and yet expect a different outcome? Most of us are driven, controlled even by our ego, our immaturity beckoned and seduced toward false havens – a flawed, myopic isolation of the present suspended from historical context. We witness the arctic melt, we see that prejudice leads to conflict, we feel when our repeated actions damage our personal relationships. But still we resist the fluid, less unilateral stance which maturity demands of us, safe in the false belief that it is another at fault, another who must shoulder the burden of change.

If we are to liberate ourselves from the cancerous, cyclical patterns born of short-sighted self interest, we must learn to cross familiar thresholds with a different, more determined intent in our step.

“Courage was mine, and I had mystery

Wisdom was mine, and I had mastery.”

Wilfred Owen

5 Comments

Tag: First World War

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