Andrea McLean

Bleddfa Bell Wheel, oil on linen on bell wheel, 174cm diameter

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A Contemporary Mappa Mundi, 2006 was made during the forty days of lent in the North Transept of Hereford Cathedral.

The painting is inspired by, and takes its structure from, the Hereford Mappa Mundi.

I wanted to explore the idea of the Hereford Mappa Mundi as the means of providing a vision depicted, a means of  ‘seeing all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time’ (St Luke), something that would fill a pilgrim’s visual field to the periphery giving him/her a way of mapping the world imaginatively.

Rather than showing you things, maps invite you to find your own way.

Looking at the painting again three years after its completion, I can see the additions that I made as a diary of events taking place during my residency at the Cathedral.

I can see: the steaming cup of coffee that punctuated my day,

a plastic water bottle floating in the sea,

a fox in recognition of the fox hunting debate going on at the time,

a tadpole added when a school girl said the picture looked like a pond,

my hands and feet at the edges of the map,

and the streets of Hereford at the centre with someone sitting on a bench.

The squirrel with a mobile represents a group of primary school children who were playing with mobile phones and looking for carved animals in the Cathedral architecture.

I painted about the Mappa Mundi – the Cathedral’s medieval treasure with my most treasured colours – cobalt blues and violets.

I painted during services, concert rehearsals and the quiet early hours.

To the Mappa Mundi’s cog like centre, I have added a golden thread as while painting I thought of William Blake’s poem:

I give you the end of a golden string,
only wind it into a ball: it will lead you in at
heaven’s gate, built in Jerusalem’s wall.

Andrea McLean, British Library, 2009

Here is my page for the Blake Birthday Book which also formed part of the touring exhibition ‘All we see is vision’ 2007-08.  Follow the link for more about this project.

work in progress

This is a new website in progress

Open Studio and Artist’s Talk during Herefordshire Art Week September 09

Solo Exhibition in Abergavenny May 2010

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