Exhibition Archive

Blessed are the Peacemakers

Rhonda Fenwick (lead artist), Caroline Coode, Mary Cook-Cosh, Andy Holt, Gina Martin, Claire Rollinson

St Peter's Church Burnham 2nd - 19th August 2014 & St Mary's Church Slough 1st - 10th September 2014

MONA LISA Arts & Media established The Peace Project, Blessed Are The Peacemakers, in September 2013 as part of the WW1 commemorations in August 2014. Drawing inspiration from the Beatitudes, Blessed Are The Peacemakers, we decided on the theme of peace. The First World War was meant to be the war to end all wars, with the ultimate aim being peace. The work created by artists, youth and community groups looked at the effects of war, War Horse, the Suffragettes and the role of women, life in Burnham 100 years ago, ideas about Peace and what that means.

Diamonds are Forever

An exhibition of work by Rhonda Fenwick, Gina Martin, Lynda Cornwell, Claire Rollinson & Andy Holt as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations

June 2, 2012 - July 7, 2012

Facts About Diamonds: All natural diamonds are made of the same material as the charcoal you burn on the grill or the graphite in the pencil you sketch with. Carbon atoms are bonded together in groups of four in a pyramid shape called a tetrahedron. Each link is equal to every other link in size. This formation of the atoms gives the diamond its hard structure. Diamonds are the hardest naturally occurring substance known to man.

Taplow Court

An exhibition of work by Rhonda Fenwick, Gina Martin, Lynda Cornwell, Andy Holt & Children from Local Schools

Windows Walls & Wishes and the Olympic Angels 2012 Visual Arts Project
At SGI-UK Taplow Court as part of the Lord Desborough Sporting Legacy celebrations
9th May - 16th September

The Olympic Angels Visual Arts Project worked with schools, youth groups and churches facilitated by MONA LISA Arts & Media. Each group included 10 to 15 participants aged between 9 and 15 years. This project was inspired by the Olympic and Paralympic Values:- Peace, Unity, Respect, Friendship, Courage, Determination, Aspiration, Inspiration, Endurance, Excellence.

Food for Thought

An exhibition of work by Rhonda Fenwick and Inge Du Plessis

February 17 to April 5, 2012

Rhonda Fenwick

We do not live by bread alone...

Being present to the moment, being still, responding to space and time, creating work inspired by this process. Being unafraid to commit images to paper that have found their way beyond my preconceptions. The unknown quantity is where it takes me and as the thing emerges it accedes to its non-logical self. It is something, it is nothing. The work has been born out of the essence of the soul and that is what it is about... beyond form. Art and life are inseparable. This is soul food.

Inge Du Plessis

When I started this series of women and consumables, I was viewing the subject of the rich and complex relationship between women and food from a rather more cynical perspective.

I was interested in the all-consuming role food plays in women's lives; from the constant, often weary acquisition and preparation of food for the family, the inescapable, mostly fraught personal relationship we have with food, to the overwhelming and insistent presence of food in the media.

Art in a Cold Climate

Exhibition of work by Anne Brown, Lynda Cornwell, Rhonda Fenwick, Andy Holt, Mary Leone, Gina Martin, Inge Du Plessis & Claire Rollinson

November 17, 2011 - January 26, 2012

Eight artists came together in this mixed media exhibition, each one with their own unique view of the world around them. The works in the exhibition showed diversity and depth with an underlying resonance that corresponds with the artists' everyday life.

From country walks, aspects of nature, religion, spirituality and consumerism we were invited to look at how each artist has experienced them and their attempts to convey these to the viewer.

As winter approached and thoughts of Christmas kept us occupied the exhibition Art in a Cold Climate helped to remind us of warmer days, notions of other realms, the natural world and at the same time raised questions about our consumer society.

Windows, Walls and Wishes

Arts Project inspired by London 2012 and the rowing events that took place at Eton College Rowing Centre 2011 - 2012

The ideas and concepts for the project were based upon the spiritual aspect of the Olympic / Paralympic Games. Where dreams and aspirations can come true. Where ordinary people young and old can come together and be part of a once in a lifetime event. This experience can help to transform them and their communities. Working in the Burnham Cluster of schools we strove to make work in collaboration to reflect the following:

Windows: Our local community and country was a window on the world as the 2012 Games came to London and the rowing events were held at Dorney Lake Rowing Centre.

Walls: Where we can hang our dreams and aspirations in the form of visual images and sculpture.

Wishes: Our hopes, dreams, aspirations can be made manifest in our artworks, writing, film, photography and installations.

Moorlinch Memories

Paintings by David Shoemark

Exhibition of Work May 24 to June 17, 2011

Reflections and Inspiration from Somerset.

The exhibition reflected influences from David 's rural past; the inspiration coming from memories of life at Moorlinch Cottage, Long Load, Somerset in the 1960s. Brought up in a family where flowers and gardens were central to their everyday life, David immersed himself in his surroundings. Most of his work is concerned with memories of that time and is mainly focused on flowers. He regards them as symbols of life and our mortality.

Flowers are here for a moment in time, they encapsulate the transience of life. My work is an attempt to capture their beauty and essence of being.

Travel Documents

Exhibition by Rhonda Fenwick June 18 - July 28, 2011

An eclectic mix of works invoking memories, responses and experiences of travel

Travel has played an important part in my life beginning, when as a small child, my father's work took him to far off distant lands around the globe e.g., Africa, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iran, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and so on. Every six months or so he returned home on leave and would tell us lots of interesting facts and stories of his trips to those exotic places.

As a child I found his stories fascinating, and to learn of different peoples and cultures was a time of wonderment. Added to this he'd bring lots of objects and materials back with him as gifts for the family endowing the stories and facts with life. These times all helped to feed and enrich my imagination as I was growing up.

In the Time of Trees

Exhibition of work by Lynda Cornwell

September 2 to October 27, 2011

Many of the images in the exhibition were reproduced from glass negative slides, taken in the 1920s & 1930s, that formed part of a library of the nation's trees, held by the Forest Products Research Laboratory in Princes Risborough. What intrigued me about these images was the light, and the power of the negative image compared to the positive. I have manipulated these images and created something different from, but true to the originals. The images you see today depict the trees some 80 years ago.

Through a project for Burnham Festival of Light I spent time at Burnham Beeches where the ancient trees have acquired some extraordinary shapes, in part through the practice of pollarding (drastic pruning) that has caused them to live years beyond their usual span.

My drawings are made from a selection of fantastical trees that captured our imaginations there. They may seem incredible, but I like to think trees like these were the inspiration for the Ents of ‘Lord of the Rings’.

London 2012

Sporting Life in Burnham 23 July - 6 August 2010

A series of events to mark the Olympic Games held in London in 2012 including an exhibition of works concerned with a variety of sports and activities in and around Burnham, described as being the most active area in the Thames Valley. The works included film, photography, drawings and paintings by artists, children and young people from Burnham and photography from members of various sports clubs in the area.

Now is the Time

Paintings by Annick McKenzie April 13, 2011 - May 13, 2011

Annick McKenzie is a French-born artist who has lived and worked in the UK for twenty three years and exhibited at international level in Europe and New York.

Her passion for colour was born out of a visit to Musee du Jeu de Paume in Paris when she was very young and where she discovered the works of Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh, Monet, Matisse, Derain and many other colour masters. She started to paint later in life when she met the right teacher in 1994.

2010 Summer Art Exhibition

Create Art, Create Peace 13 July - 21 July 2010

The Summer Art Exhibition was an eclectic mix of artworks from artists, students from Burnham Upper & Grammar School, pupils from Lent Rise Primary School, St Peter's Primary School and Dorney Primary School. It included paintings, drawings, mixed media and sculpture demonstrating a diverse range of skills, creativity and imagination from the local community and beyond.

The task of art is enormous... Art should cause violence to be set aside. And it is only art that can accomplish this. (Leo Tolstoy)

Peace and Harmony

Arts & Flower Festival 26 June - 1 July 2010

Held to money for charity - Greenpeace, The London Run and St Peter's Church, the festival included an exhibition of works by local, regional and national artists including schools from the Burnham area. The Burnham Floral Art Society installed floral art displays and there were evening performances of music, drama and choirs from local schools, actors and musicians.

The festival and art exhibition was formally opened on Sat 26 June 2pm - 5pm in St Peter's Church Burnham and ran from Sun 12 - 4pm Mon - Thurs 10am - 4pm and admission was free. Evening performances ran from Sun - Wed 7pm - 9.30pm.

The festival ended with a celebratory dinner at Eton College Rowing Centre on 1 July 2010 with entertainment from Jean Purdy and Bob Sacco magicians extraordinaire, and, a disco from St Peter's resident DJ Brian Cox.

Elementals

Art Responding to Climate Change 30 March — 30 April 2010

Elementals was a mixed media exhibition of work by students from Burnham Grammar School and Burnham Upper School with the artists Rhonda Fenwick and Gina Martin, held in the new Flux Gallery at 93a High Street Burnham. The work is based on Burnham Beeches, the importance of trees and climate change issues. The exhibition was part of the official launch of the joint initiative between MONA LISA Arts & Media and Burnham Community Association.

The students worked with artist & film-maker Rhonda Fenwick and Sculptor Gina Martin and have carried out a number of workshops in schools and organised visits to Burnham Beeches. Chris Martin and Hannah Rose, Forest Rangers in the Beeches, gave the students introductory talks. These talks helped to give an insight into the life of the forest and its eco-systems, the different kinds of trees found there, how they are cared for, about the wildlife that inhabits the Beeches plus a brief history and how it is all managed.