'From 1985 I was awarded
a Welsh Arts Council Travel Grant to study 'Standing Stones' throughout Europe,
I have worked on a series of paintings and drawings which are totally connected.
The first standing stone I painted was the 'Llywel Stone' which is now in
the British Museum. This was followed by a series of paintings based on the
imagery from the 'Standing Stones' throughout Wales. The imagery and the feelings
expressed in these paintings seemed to relate to the poetry of RS Thomas,
and particularly the poem 'Welsh landscape' and the lines -
To live in Wales is
to be conscious
At dusk of the spilled blood
That went to the making of the wild sky
RS Thomas
Early in
1996 I was commissioned by the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford upon Avon,
to paint any Shakespearean charcter. I chose Owain Glyndwr and the statement
by Glyndwr from 'King Henry IV' -
When I was born the earth did shake
The two
quotations above are often written directly on the paintings.
In August 1997 I visited Neath Abbey and there in the large hall I found a
most wonderful medieval tiled floor from the 12th Century; the subject matter
was hunting and jousting. The 'jousting' imagery seemed to relate to a previous
'Warrior' series, and has inspired a whole new series of works. They appear
to be all about 'Painting' and not 'Picture Making'. They seem to relate to
manuscripts I have studied in Ireland and Wales. They seem to weave and meander
like a story from the 'Mabinogion', a Welsh knot, or a piece of penllion music.
Statement taken from the catalogue of The Millennium Exhibition
at the Tenby Museum.'
'FORWARD' Robert McKee on John Uzzell Edwards
The Hindu symbol for
the human mind is the jabbering monkey, that cerebral Pandemonium only intense
meditation can silence. For while the incessant rattling of self-debate, of
repetitious mental tasks, of flitting memory and anticipation gets us through
our days, this moil also builds an impenetrable frtress against deep experience.
As long as the mind is whirling away, no substantive change can occur within
us. The joy of art, therefore, is its power to silence the monkey. When in
the grip of compelling work we slip into a spontaneous meditation. Then, in
the quiet of aesthetic contemplation, we are filled with the artist's vision,
our humanity is illuminated, our being renewed.
Thus I have a simple
test that tells me whether or not a painting works, if, when I step up to
a canvas, I hear my mind spewing thoughts such as "Clever juxtaposition of
red against blue," "Interesting solution to that problem in the upper left,"
"That image...yes, I remember, it's the symbol for -", I know in a flash that
this piece does not work. It has amplified the chatter. If, however, my mind
falls silent as my eye travels around the surface for five, ten minutes or
more with no analysis, no musing, no questioning, only pure sensory focus
inside a perfect stillness of thought, then, as I finally look away, sensing
a deep resonation of aesthetic experience, I know that this painting works.
It is not merely decorative; it is expressive. It has silenced the chatter
in my mind and caused a profound shift within such that I am not the same
person I was just moments ago.
The paintings of
John Uzzell Edwards have this power. I first experienced his magic a decade
ago in Cardiff's West Wharf gallery. There were other painters on exhibit
that day, solid professional artists, but the Uzzell Edwards canvasses drew
me like a Siren's song. In this period his works were figurative... muscular
outlines and vigorous matrixes created through a layering of oils, brush strokes
and pallet knife, that generated the most amazing textures and colour combinations
I had ever seen. I stood, I don't know how long, in wordless fascination.
When at last I stepped back, I knew I wanted these paintings in my life, for
if they had such power at first viewing, surely their force would grow day
after day, year after year to give me endless, bottomless pleasure. Indeed,
the six 'Uzzell Edwards' I've collected to date have done all that and more.
Robert McKee is a screen guru who lectures in 'story structure'
to auditoriums worldwide. His bestselling bible on the principles of screenwriting
'Story' was published in 1998.
