Leslie Desmond
As an artist, Leslie’s expressive graphic line reflects the energy, focus and feel she draws
on for her extraordinary work with horses, infusing both with the life and freedom her unique approach inspires.
We
admire the horse for his power and grace, for his beauty and mystical qualities. It seems that nearly all who are involved
with the horse are drawn in by these noble and magnificent attributes. Through the ages, people have wanted to merge with
the horse and merge with the horse they have ... in work and war, in literature, in sport and in art.
In
order to preserve the spirit and the grace of his natural movement when you touch him, ride him, favour and depict him, you
must first learn to feel of the horse. “Feel” is the horse’s own language, and when this sacred line of
communication is open between the species, it is the most natural way for him to make his intentions clearly known to us. If
we are good students of the horse, then we will return the favour and develop our aptitude to excel at communicating with
him in his language, and depict him likewise in our preferred creative medium . . . as the consummate embodiment of “feel”.
The
horse, in his inimitable way, has deeply touched the human soul. But, just as he has touched the sabre and lance with his
body, and graced the grain fields, race courses and show rings with his mighty efforts and his sweat; so, too, has he visited
the school yards and back yards making the big dreams of little people come true. And, last but far from least, he has filled
the purses and bank accounts of those whose keep he earned by associating with him . . . in countless ways.
But
I want to count the ways, as many of them as I can, for surely that way I will learn more about my fellow man from observing
the way horses offer their affect and influence. Beyond that, I want the lessons that are so well taught by the horse to grow,
to expand - to explode like a bionic contagion - so that one day each spot on earth occupied by human beings will know horses
and their sweet essence, and their indelible, transformative effect on the human heart and spirit.
Ample
is the evidence that it is simply not enough, just to know about them.
Leslie
Desmond
Järinge
Gård, Sweden
6
September 2008
Helen Edwards
Helen has been painting images of 'being in landscape' for many years and is particularly interested
in the dimensions to 'being in a body'. She is interested in improvising across sound, visual, movement and live art forms.
With a background in Integrative Arts Pyschotherapy, she has also studied Butoh in Japan, London and Oxford and researches
working with movement and stillness.
Malcolm Atkins
Malcolm is a composer/performer currently working on
a doctorate at Brookes University exploring the boundaries of improvisation and composition. He plays violin and keyboards
in various groups which he also writes and arranges for. He also composes for
theatre and contemporary groups, currently working extensively with Café Reason Butoh Dance Theatre.
He works as a lecturer in music
for the Open University as well as freelance on educational music projects (these have included work for Oxford Philomusica
Orchestra, United World Youth Council, Cambridge String Quartet Association).
www.oxfordimprovisors.com
Dexter Jones
Dexter is
an inspirational and highly original composer who transcends musical boundaries and sounds. His profoundly moving work stands
alone, although he is also often commissioned to work with film.
His CD, 'As It Is Written', produced for the 'Epona Varations' exhbition
in Henley, is available online from his website, www.dimensionstudio.co.uk, where you can also hear excerpts from this and
his other work.
www.dimensionstudio.co.uk
Xanthe Mosley
Xanthe
studied art at Camberwell, Byam Shaw and The London College of Printing. She has lived in Devon for 22 years and for 6 years
she was the Artist-in-Residence at the Devon County Show, where she drew and painted literally hundreds of animals for many
different customers, from the Canadian Mounties to Devon Small holders to the President of the Show.
Xanthe
also runs the Alphington Life Drawing Group and is an administrator for The Dartmoor Arts Project. She has had many
exhibitions and sells nationally and internationally.
www.xanthe.mosley.com
Clare
Trenchard
Clare
studied sculpture at the Chelsea School of Art where she graduated with a BA in Fine Arts in 1978. She has exhibited in London
at the I.C.A. and for the Society of Portrait Sculptors. She also exhibits regularly in the West Country.
Her sculptures are modelled mainly
from life in clay, plaster or wax and cast in bronze or bronze resin. Commissions for portraits and sculptures of animals
make up most of Clare's work and are normally undertaken in her studio in West Dorset.
www.claretrenchard.com
