Joy Wolfenden Brown 'Feather'

Joy Wolfenden Brown ‘Feather’

“Thus am I ‘a feather on the breath of God’’ 

Hildegard of Bingen, 1098-1179

Introduction 

“Tis said far down beneath the wild commotion. 

That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore”. 

Harriet Beecher, American Author and 

Abolishionist, 1811-1896 

Do words help? I don’t know. If I write words 

am I saying the same thing as before but in a 

slightly different way? Like my paintings, I am 

tempted at this point, to be speechless, a little. 

The journey is a continuation of the same 

journey; the new paintings reflecting the 

next ‘section’. 

Each painting starts at a point of not knowing, 

not thinking; nothing. If you were to watch 

me in my ‘studio’ I think you might find it 

quite a joke! Sitting silently, ‘ half -hearing’, 

dithering, piecing bits together. Heaving 

large paintings around a tiny space, foraging 

for scraps of old paintings, shuffling around 

on my knees (causing callouses on my knees 

and feet!). All in order to make a stammering 

start. Painting and overpainting, I often find 

that the exploration leads me back to another 

portrait, another lone figure, until I recognise 

something fractionally new that utters itself 

into the painting and my heart responds. 

A tiny breakthrough… and so there is this 

spiritual shuffle… both feeble and true. 

It catches me unawares when, for example, a 

feather appears in my paintings and the feather 

feels like it is one of those tiny breakthroughs… 

but I am reluctant to ‘speak’ that, incase 

it becomes something other than it is. 

Joy Wolfenden Brown, 2024 

“We shall not cease from exploration 

And the end of our exploring will be to arrive 

where we started. 

And we know the place for the first time. 

Through the unknown, unremembered gate 

When the last of the earth left to discover 

Is that which was the beginning; 

At the source of the longest river 

The voice of the hidden waterfall 

And the children in the apple-tree 

Not known, because not looked for 

But heard, half-heard, in the stillness 

Between two waves of the sea. 

Quick now, here, now, always- 

A condition of complete simplicity 

(Costing less than everything) 

And all shall be well and 

All manner of thing shall be well.” 

T.S. Elliot ‘Little Gidding’ 

The Sadness That Rose and Fell in Me Was Like the Tides (Elizabeth Strout) 

oil on paper, 15 x 27 cm 

2

53

4

In the Stillness 

oil on fine linen canvas, 114 x 112 cm 

5

If I Rise On The Wings Of The Dawn (Psalm 139 vs 9) 

6 

oil on paper, 21 x 33 cm

Oceans 


7

8

I Came to the Sea and Was Silent 

oil on board, 41 x 56 cm 

9

Feather Heart 


10

11

12

Still, Small Voice 


13

Song 


14

15

Three Boats 

16 


On Quiet Days 


17

Her Inward Glance 


18

19

20

Home 


21

On Water 

22 


Listener 


23

24

Half-Heard, in the Stillness Between Two Waves (T.S.Elliot) 


25

Secret Heart 


26

27

28

Enfolded 


29

Homefront 


30

31

32

White Tulips 


33

Half-Heard 


34

35

Feather (Blue) 

36 


Feather (Gold) 


37

38

Three Feathers 


39

Four Feathers 


40

41

42

Her Heart’s Flight 


43

Night Song 

44 


Oh Dove 


45

Morning Has Broken 

46 


Home on the Wind 


47

48

Yellow Bird 


49

Oh For The Wings of a Dove (Ps. 55:6) 


50

51

Hidden Story 


52

Oh Horse 


53

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Biography 

Joy Wolfenden Brown’s intimate oil paintings feel hauntingly familiar, 

possessing a raw emotional, honesty. She captures fleeting fragments 

of memory, moments in time where the inherent vulnerability of the 

figures depicted, often in isolation, is palpable. These are lovingly yet 

spontaneously executed reflections on the human condition, which have 

an unnervingly, yet simultaneously comforting, unguarded quality. 

Joy Wolfenden Brown is a British artist born in Stamford, Lincolnshire. 

She currently lives in Bude, North Cornwall. She graduated from Leeds 

University then completed a post-graduate diploma in Art Therapy at 

Hertfordshire College of Art & Design and worked as an Art Therapist 

for ten years before moving to Cornwall in 1999. Since then she has 

had numerous solo exhibitions and was the First Prize Winner in 

The National Open Art Competition, 2012. She was also awarded the 

Somerville Gallery painting prize in 2003 and first prize winner at the 

Sherborne Open in 2007 and the Evolver prize at The RWA in 2019 and 

the Judges Choice at the Chaiya Art Award 2023. Works were acquired by 

the Anthony Pettullo Outsider Art Collection in Milwaukee with further 

works held in collections worldwide. 

Unsleeping Light 


55

Published by Anima Mundi to coincide with Joy Wolfenden Brown ‘Feather’ 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or 

by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publishers 

Photography by Claira Matheson 

Anima Mundi . Street-an-Pol . St. Ives . Cornwall . +44 (0)1736 793121 . mail@animamundigallery.com . www.animamundigallery.com

www.animamundigallery.com

Joy Wolfenden Brown 'Feather'

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