Each month we will be giving you the opportunity to learn more about the faces of our community, in a regular feature sharing the positive work of individuals, charities and organisations.
Faces of our Community will be released at the end of each month, with the Cathedral’s monthly E-Newsletter. For February we are joined by Martin Earle.
Martin Earle is a Catholic artist specialising in works for churches and the sacred liturgy.
As well as painting in egg tempera and gilt, he carves in wood and stone, makes mosaics, and creates designs for other makers to execute. Working firmly within the tradition of Christian iconography, his aim is to profess that ‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory’. Martin is currently undertaking an artist residency, The Art of Worship, within a custom-built studio in the Cathedral’s North Transept until March 2022.
The working life of an artist or craftsperson can be a solitary business.
In contrast, our time during the Art of Worship residency has been wonderfully social. We have revelled in the rich cast of visitors who pass by our workshop, peer through the windows or stop for a chat. In a single day conversations range over topics which are practical, theological and, often, deeply personal.
The most common question Jim and I are asked by visitors is whether we are involved in a restoration project. The assumption that we have been entrusted with the cathedral’s precious fabric is a compliment but, speaking for myself, an entirely undeserved one. The art of restoring images is very different from the art of creating new ones.
For example, the art of restoration permits no room for failure or misjudgement; by nature it is cautious and refined. On the other hand, there is great latitude when making a work from scratch. Indeed, failure and discovery seem to go hand in hand. You need to get a little lost, persevere in a struggle and be ready to rub everything out and start again. Time in the workshop sometimes reminds me of the biblical image of Jacob wrestling with the angel; doggedly refusing to release his grip until he receives a blessing.
For a restorer, patience is always a virtue. For a liturgical artist this is not always so. The great works of Christian iconography have a quality of urgency and directness to them. They sometimes seem to have been hastily made. Perhaps this is because the message entrusted to the Church permits no obfuscation or delay. Since what is at stake is salvation itself, in the words of St Peter and St John, ‘we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard’ (Acts 4:20). Another image from the Old Testament comes to mind; Noah building the ark as the waters rose about him.
The Church has never been content only to restore and maintain past works. Its iconography is evergreen, remade by each generation. How could this be otherwise? Our Lord chose not something permanent like stone, but bread and wine as the enduring memorial of his presence with us. These perishable signs must be constantly renewed, and will be ‘until the end of the ages’ (Matthew 28:20) in the daily offering of the Eucharist.
Jim Blackstone and I are now about halfway through our time as artists in residence in the Cathedral. Carried along and buoyed up the whole community, we are now feeling very much at home in our beautiful workshop in the North Transept! Please continue to visit us at any time from Tuesday to Saturday until the last week of March, and especially between 1.00pm - 2.00pm. From 21st - 25th February, Aidan Hart and his icon painting students from the Prince’s School of Traditional Art will also be in residence. Please do drop in to see them in the Vicars' Hall (afternoons are best).
