Creation: A Celebration

Creation: A Celebration

by SueSymons (Author)

Synopsis

Creation: A Celebration depicts the story of Genesis in a stunningly beautiful and imaginative combination of painting and needlework. It is not so much a religious work as an evocation of a colourful story to which Sue Symons has applied her skills in painting, needlework and design to reveal the beauty and wonder of creation as an ongoing process. The painted texts from Chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis, using the poetic King James translation, are highly decorated and illuminated. These pages are interspersed with others containing a rich melange of illustrative artwork depicting the great variety of plants, animals and insects with whom we share this wonderful creation - 112 different butterflies are illustrated on the endpapers. Sue Symons devoted two years to completing the project which has over forty panels, all but one containing central panels which are painted, with borders of hand and machine stitched needlework. The first public display of the artwork from which this book is produced took place in September and October 2009 in Bath Abbey, the home of the Bath Abbey Diptychs, her earlier work.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 60
Publisher: Shepheard-Walwyn (Publishers) Ltd
Published: 24 May 2010

ISBN 10: 0856832693
ISBN 13: 9780856832697

Media Reviews
If there was an award for the most beautiful book of the year, Peasedown St John artist Sue Symons would stand a very good chance of winning it. Sue might also win an award for the most beautiful art show of the year too. For two years Sue spent most of her waking hours creating with paints and needlework the story of creation in more than 40 beautifully and intricately worked panels. All of them have now been photographed and turned into a book although a full exhibition of the original work takes place at St MIchael's Church, Broad St, Bath, from June 7 to 14. Sue studied fine arts at Bath Academy at Corsham in the mid-1960s followed by a year specialising in needlework. She then moved to Canada and did not return to England until 2005, choosing to live near Bath to work on her first book One Man's Journey to Heaven. The original artwork, now known as the Bath Abbey Diptych's, related the life of Christ from the Annunciation to Ascension. The new works were all created in her tiny studio at Ashgrove Court, Peasedown. She mostly got up early in the morning to work through the day to create the panels for Creation: A Celebration which depicts the Genesis version of creation in both painting and needlework. The work consists of 48 panels, each 19 inched by 15 inches, which are unframed and designed to be displayed on raised table-tops in a zig-zag. Most of the pieces have central panels with borders of hand-stitched needlework The book will be available during the next week or so from Toppings in The Paragon and at the Bath Abbey bookshop. It is published by Shepheard-Walwyn Ltd, priced GBP30. While you can see One Man's Journey to Heaven now, the new works Creation: A Celebration opens at St Michael's on June 7 and can be seen on weekdays and Saturdays from 10am to 4pm. The exhibition then moves to Bristol Cathedral in July and Exeter Cathedral in September. Bath Chronicle 20100520
Author Bio
Sue Symons studied Fine Arts at Bath Academy of Art followed by a year at Leicester University specialising in needlework. She taught at schools in Wallingford and Malvern before moving to France. She then spent sixteen years in British Columbia, Canada, where she taught Further Education classes and exhibited widely. In 2005 she returned to England, and now lives near Bath, where she began work on her first set of panels, now known as the Bath Abbey Diptychs, which relate the life of Christ from Annunciation to Ascension.