The profound impact of a holiday in Italy spent looking at Piero della Francesco’s masterpieces to Celia Read by surprise. It lead her to try to re-explore for herself the meaning of the Christian narrative that had imbued her childhood, and which she rebelled against in adolescence. Wondering how people from different cultures and religions view the great religious masterpieces of Western Civilization, she mediated on the insights and inspirations from her own heritage, whilst reading and learning from others.

She painted the first works in the series. `Threshold` I–IV in a remote part of Madagascar and found herself embarked on a mission to find ways to celebrate and give a form to the sacred in a secular society. In these works, we can feel her commitment to seeking a new way to allow that which is deeply mysterious to inhabit her work, endeavouring to express it with loving care. This may sound gentle, but that is to ignore that it requires passion and strenuous activity that charges the work with energy.

Written by Wolseley Fine Arts
www.wolseleyfinearts.com