Library’s artist-in-residence looks back at year of paintings

AN artist from Watlington has been showcasing his works in the village library for more than a year.

Jim Kelso has been hanging paintings since September 2021. The library also sells prints of the artworks, which depict scenes from Watlington and the surrounding area, such as the Watlington chalk mark. He also drew the library and donated a print of it and the original to the previous chairman of the Friends of Watlington Library when he stepped down.

Now Mr Kelso is working on archiving his life’s work and compiling it into a series of journals, one of which is available at the library.

Anna Tilley, who now chairs the Friends, said: “The opportunity to showcase wonderful artwork provides yet another reason for people to visit. The paintings have been much admired and we are extremely grateful to James Kelso for being our artist-in-residence.”

The first painting to go up was The Watlington Mark, an oil on gessoed panel, the artist’s preferred medium.

Mr Kelso said: “The White Mark on Watlington Hill was cut in 1764 on the whim of a local squire. Centuries later, while out walking, I saw a crow pick up something on the hill that may or may not have been a face mask. It suggested a coincidence of words, corvid — Latin for crow — and covid for the mask virus. A tenuous connection but that is what led to the picture.”

The second was The Treasure of Britwell Salome — Vespers, which went up in January.

Mr Kelso said: “The old granary at Britwell Salome was hidden from the road, shielded by trees and hedgerows. A friend mentioned the fancy corbelling of the brickwork. I painted a pair of pictures, one front, one back. One side gets the morning sun, hence ‘Matins’ — I could hear the nearby church bells — and the far side takes the sunset — hence ‘Vespers’.”

Matins and Vespers were exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists in 2020 and 2021.

In June, The Worm Forgives the Plough was hung. Mr Kelso said: “The title is taken from the John Stewart Collis book of the same name published in 1973. The scene is on the Oxfordshire plain, on the escarpment side of the nearby Chiltern Hills.

“There’s a plan — much denied — to cover this area of Oxfordshire, Chalgrove Airfield, with 3,000 new homes — faites vos jeux.”

The most recent painting, which is still on display, is Hedgerow, a study based on the West Meadow Watlington hedgerow rejuvenation project, which took place a year ago.

Mr Kelso said: “The project caused quite a stir, not least among the branches, boughs, limbs, twigs, leaves, sticks, buds, and barky bits of the hedgerow itself, as well as among its various residents, tenants, lessees, and freeholders.

“The wildlife, one imagines on that fateful morning were hopping mad. I based the design on Mahoning, a favourite painting by the New York expressionist Franz Kline.”