Welcome to Utopia Park: ‘Prayer Paintings’ and conversations exploring art and the sacred.

Matthew Askey, artist, is currently an Ordinand at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, UK, and is exploring in this artwork a prayerful engagement with the sacred through visual metaphors of Light and Darkness. Please see the ‘Conversations’ for information about the artwork and how it came about.

Matthew intends to make the work available to Cathedrals, Church communities and institutions, to be commissioned where needed, and donated freely, as a resource for the whole church in order to equip its members, and those outside and on the edges, with a deeper engagement with the visual and with contemporary art dealing with the sacred, extending the opportunities this offers for growing discipleship and mission.The artwork you see on these pages are all relatively new (2008) and the themes themselves are developing

and deepening as Matthew progresses; many of the current images are small in scale and can be considered ‘studies’ and it is hoped commissions of larger pieces will follow.

Love and prayers, Matthew.

NEWS

• Gethsemane . A new series of 15 paintings to be on show at Wakefield Cathedral, Yorkshire, during Lent 2009. Free.



• Art, Light and Prayer. Sat 28 th Feb 2009 . Education event: A day led by Matthew Askey at the Mirfield Centre, West Yorkshire. £15 (including lunch). www.mirfieldcentre.org.uk