T  H  E    O  L  D    C  H  A  P  E  L    .    C  H  A  L  F  O  R  D

G   L   O   U   C   E   S   T   E   R   S   H   I   R   E
 

  The Old Chapel is the home and studio of artists F. John  and Fiona Owen. Each year,
for two weeks of the summer, the two painters exhibit their paintings in their  studio. It is an annual Midsummer Celebration - a visual journal of their year, recording their travels and their daily walks. Their hillside garden is spread over an acre of terraced
cliff, with a Gothic tower, pond house and box hedged potager. Every June, the studio becomes an exhibition space for their paintings. It is twenty-five years since they moved to the Chapel and they have brought up their two children there - both are now
also practicing artists in London.
 To celebrate this anniversary Fiona has designed a Moondial with Harriet James  (Master Sundial Maker)which will hopefully
be placed in the garden in time for this year's exhibition.

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Gardens Illustrated: 'Folk memory and spiritual imagery often endow vantage points with an enigmatic eminence that is as intangible as inexplicable. How appropriate, that two talented artists Fiona and John Owen, whose paintings capture the rural scene, should choose to live in a converted chapel, perched high on a Gloucestershire hillside: and that they should also decide to create a magical and allegorical garden in such a spiritually charged setting'. Margaret Buntrock

Country Living: 'The glorious garden that has emerged from rubble is now a place of pilgrimage for horticulturalists and painters alike. You have to see their paintings to appreciate the skill and vision that make John's so strongly evocative of mood and light, Fiona's so perfectly observed, executed with all the richness and precision of illuminated manuscripts'. Miranda Innes

Telegraph Magazine: 'For the valley has an association with craftsmen and painters going back a century. Once a year, in June, easels and palettes are tidied away and the walls are hung with small and miniature canvases that they both paint; intricate studies, featuring bright, jewel-like colours, long shadows and reflections'. Stephen Lacey

Also featured in:
Featured in 'Dream Gardens' by Andrew Lawson and Tania Compton, 2007 · ' Great Cotswold Gardens' by David Hicks .
The English Garden magazine, 2007 · Saturday Times · Telegraph Magazine · Gardens Illustrated · London Evening Standard · US & UK Country living · Homes & Gardens, etc.

   THE OLD CHAPEL, MARLE HILL, CHALFORD
   The Old Chapel garden is around an acre an
   and there are many steps between levels.

O  L  D     C  H  A  P  E  L     W  A  L  L     P  A  I  N  T  I  N  G

In the studio, the west wall of the old Wesleyan Chapel has been painted to celebrate the opening of the Millennium exhibition. It was created over two years, and depicts friends and neighbours coming to celebrate the Midsummer fire festival of St. John, and the Summer Solstice. The figures descend to the Chapel, flanking each side of the garden, playing musical instruments and bearing colourful streamers bedecked in gold. the wall painting was inspired by Benozzo Gozzoli's fresco cycle at the Medici Ricardi chapel in Florence.

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 F   I   O   N   A      O   W   E    N
 

Fiona paints in oil on panel and gilds her work with 24ct. English gold leaf in the tradition of the Medieval manuscripts. Inspiration for her extraordinarily intricate, lyrical paintings is drawn from her native landscape - the flora and fauna and the changing seasons, and her Celtic inheritance. She endeavours to capture the elusive Wild Magic that is the genius loci - the spirit unique to each place. 
Her paintings are a celebration of, and a homage to, Nature. She works in the tradition of the Mystic Visionaries, from William Blake, Samuel Palmer, Richard Jeffries, through to Cedric Morris, Kathleen Raine and Robin Tanner, and believes this pattern in painting and writing to be a thread through time,  existing metaphysically as a united body of consciousness.

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The tiny studio in Italy under a fig tree...

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Fiona at work in the Old Chapel studio

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F  .   J   O   H   N     O   W   E   N

Light and atmosphere infuse John's paintings. The 
challenge is to create a sense of light, space and volume from paint, transforming an ordinary, 
everyday image into an extraordinary moment of
vision.  John paints in both oils and watercolours , 
making detailed sketches from life,  wherever his
travels take him, then working up his paintings in
the studio. The impasto paint is often worked into
to make a textured finish and creating another dimension. Igniting light in a two dimensional painting by manipulating base pigment is an alchemy that has engaged artists through the centuries and is still an aim of painters whether figurative or abstract.

A couple of John's sketches from Italy ...

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2 0 1 2

 2 5 t h   A N N I V E R S A R Y 
.
S U M M E R   C E L E B R A T I O N

at the

O L D   C H A P E L 
M A R L E   H I L L
C H A L F O R D
G L O S
 
Exhibition & Garden 
open daily 10am-5pm, for THREE WEEKS
Sunday 28th May to Sunday 17th June
( GARDEN OPEN - £ 3.50  IN AID OF THE COTSWOLD CARE HOSPICE )

R E C E N T   P A I N T I N G S   B Y   F . J O H N  &  F I O N A  O W E N

                             F     I     O     N     A        O     W     E     N 
                                                   .

                           T    E    R    R    A        I    N    C    O    G    N    I    T    A

    This series of paintings is a development of last year's theme of 'Drawing out the Dreaming'. During the exhibition, I will be continuing work on painting a gessoed Globe that is to be in an
exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society in September. This exciting project has introduced the concept of mapping into my work,connecting Nature's Song-lines and reading the Story of the Land. Gilded contours and compass points join symbolism with Landscape in the alternative Reality of Dream time Journeying.
    Nature , as ever is  central to my inspiration and I have recently completed a year's course in Medical and Intuitive Herbalism which has deepened my knowledge and respect for our indigenous plant-world. I have just begun working on illustrating a book on indigenous herbs with my teacher Nathan Hughes.
 

                                                      M  O  O  N  D  I  A  L

This is paper model of the Moondial.
Fiona has translated much of the symbolism
that she uses in her painting to create a Moondial
for the garden.
It has been made in Copper and Brass by Master Sundial Maker, Harriet James.

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                                                                  G   L   O   B   E

This Globe is a work in progress by Fiona,
It is oils and 24ct English gold and silver
leaf, painted on a Gesso ground.
When completed it will be exhibited
at the Royal Geographical Society in
September. Fiona will be working on this project throughout our Exhibition
this June

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                           F   .    J     O     H     N        O     W     E     N
                                                                            .

                                             O    N       T   H   E      E   D   G   E 

This exhibition is an exploration of boundaries; the edge of day, when the sything sun slices through the trees; the edge of night with its full-blown moons and soft blue shadows, and the edge of our landscape - the Cotswold escarpment that acts as a physical and mental boundary at the edge of our Stroud Valleys. This year's paintings are mainly inspired by our local topography and the intrinsic 'poetry' of our area. I have been working on some panoramic paintings from familiar places like Uley Bury or Swift's Hill, Slad - where the unfolding view seems to dissolve into the Severn Vale or Cotswold skies.

                           BELOW IS A SELECTION OF PAINTINGS FROM 2012

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Previous Exhibitions

Medici Society Gallery, London, UK ( from 1981 to 1991)
Sagert Gallery, Berlin, GER
Nailsworth Gallery, Berlin, GER
Nevill Gallery, Bath, UK
Lane Gallery, Key West, USA
Diva Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida, USA
Diva Gallery, Long Island, NY, USA
Southshore Art Center, Boston, USA

John exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition for ten years from 1984.
 

Contact

For enquiries about Paintings and Limited Edition Prints:

Telephone:
+44 1453 886587 (international)
(01453) 886587 (within the UK)

Email: johnandfionaowen@hotmail.com

The Old Chapel, Marle Hill, Chalford, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL6 8PN, United Kingdom

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L I M I T E D   E D I T I O N   P R I N T S  
by  F I O N A   O W E N

 Printed on Water-colour paper, with real gold detailing. Edition of 750 signed by the artist.

      Lavender Honey  -         34cm x 36cm  - £85

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     Honeysuckle Hive  -    23cm x 23.5cm  - £65

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      Strawberry Thief  -     14cm x 15cm  -  £40

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   May Day Celebration  -  11cm x 16cm  -  £40

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       Goose Orchard  -      16cm x 13cm  -  £35

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       Blue-bell Wood  -      12cm x 17cm  -  £35

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     Pansy Pot-pourri  -     11cm x 14cm   - £35

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           Bird Prints   -        10cm x 14cm  - 
                                            available at £20 each 
                                            or £70 for  all 4

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                Ducks

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                Doves

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                 Owls.........      

and below ....Kingfishers 

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   Fiona Owen illuminated book of poetry by Kristina Niven
                                           'POUR TOI'
    A Limited edition, dedicated to her father David Niven.
          Each book is signed by Fiona and Kristina  -  £20  

                     'Pour Toi' has fifteen illustrations by Fiona Owen, reproduced from her water-colours. 
                                           It was published by the Medici Society, London in 1985

L I M I T E D   E D I T I O N   P R I N T S   
by  F.  J O H N  O W E N


     Beach Paths, Crete  -  28cm x 37cm -  £75

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          Teasels, Slad   -      21cm x 26cm  -  £55

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To order prints, please phone 01453 886587
or email : johnandfionaowen@hotmail.com

Post & Packaging £4.95 ( U.K. )

How to get here

Marle Hill is in Chalford, on the A419 between Stroud and Cirencester.

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Casa Della Colline Verdi

Casa delle Colline Verdi ('the House of the Green Hills'), set amongst the panoramic foothills of the Appenines, has become our retreat, and provides an endless source of fresh inspiration.

For those seeking a place of perfect peace, a retreat from the modern world, we are renting our Italian home. There is no television, pool or telephone. It is a place to paint, walk, read and contemplate in an exquisite and inspiring landscape.

For further details, visit our website.

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All text and images copyright © John and Fiona Owen 2009