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Thursday 24 September 2015

David Matthews: Real Art

Ann Arnold - The Rainbow
Reproduced with the kind permission from the artist


Composer David Matthews ponders the parallels between the zeitgeist of art and music in our time.

On our way back from the Presteigne Festival, my wife Jenifer and I went to see the artists Graham and Ann Arnold, who have a cottage in a small village in deepest Shropshire. They have lived in the village for many years, having forsaken city life in the 1970s when they were members of the Brotherhood of Ruralists, whose aim was to recapture the spirit of Samuel Palmer and the Pre-Raphaelites, in deliberate rejection of the styles and attitudes of many of their contemporaries. The Brotherhood has ceased to exist, but Graham and Ann – Graham now in his early 80s, Ann a few years younger – have continued to uphold its beliefs in their work.