The summer has flown by and suddenly September 1st has arrived – my first day as Lincoln Cathedral’s Artist in Residence.

Lots of people have asked me what an Artist in Residence is – or does. The term is actually a misnomer as I don’t need to be ‘resident’ at all. I live about thirteen miles away from Lincoln, so it’s an easy commute as long as I can avoid rush hour. There are no restrictions as to when I should and shouldn’t be in the building, or what work I produce.
 
 

I do have a rather lovely studio space, accessed up these stairs –

This is the view from my desk, high up, overlooking the choir  –

– and here’s a better photograph of the stained glass windows you can see above –

All in all, a very nice place to sit and paint! The kind folk in the works department have put me an electrical socket in so that I can have good light up there. I’m told it’s very cold in the winter, but I’ll deal with that problem when I come to it.

So what does an Artist in Residence do? My plan, simply, is to create a series of work inspired by the Cathedral and its manuscripts. That means I have access to the manuscript store – what a privilege!

On my first day I thought I’d have a look at Lincoln’s most famous volume – MS 91, The ‘Thornton’ Romances. It was written in the mid-fifteenth century by Robert Thornton, a Yorkshire landowner.

Rebound in 1975 with oak boards and pig skin it contains 322 paper leaves.  The manuscript includes the only surviving medieval versions of several important Middle English romances, such as the alliterative Morte Arthure

f. 53r. ‘He begynnes Morte Arthure. Now grett glorious Godd thurgh grace of hym schew….’.

There are also devotional texts and a ‘medical’ section called Liber de Diversis Medicinis –

f. 176r ‘A charme for tethe werke….’ (toothache)

It is not illuminated, but does have some beautiful letters like this ‘n’ –

f. 95r ‘N’ with a face

MS 91 may not be the ‘prettiest’ of the manuscripts, but it is unique. These little lettering details, or something inspired by them, will creep into a piece of work sometime during my time at the Cathedral.

I’ll be planning my first illuminated pages over the next week or two. Whilst my studio space is lovely I like to share what I am painting, so I’ll be setting up a table with my gold leaf and pigments down in the Cathedral itself from time to time. Those of you who are local – do come and chat or look over my shoulder!