Dear Friends

Earlier this month, September 7th 2023,  a Winifred Nicholson oil painting of Blue Hyacinths in a Winter Landscape on board was bought for £48,000 at 1818 Auctioneers, Cumbria.    This is a snip for an artist whose work was much treasured by David Bowie. Following Bowie's death in 2016 the sale of Nicholson's 'St Ives Harbour' set a new world record for a work of art by the artist at £245,000 .  Winifred Nicholson actually lived and worked in Cumberland for much of her life.

Winifred Nicholson (1893 -1981) loved Cumberland and this love shines through in her paintings, many of which explored light, space and colour through the prism of flowers placed in a vase with a landscape backdrop. 

Some of the most beautiful paintings are those at St Bees with the ethereal looking Isle of Man in the far distance.

It is hard not to speculate about what Winifred Nicholson would have thought about the plan for a deep and very hot nuclear waste "disposal facility" in the Irish Sea, directly beneath the sparkling waves of the Irish Sea she so often painted.  

Today's plans for sub-sea nuclear waste disposal put an entirely different perspective on her beautiful dream-like Irish Sea paintings.  There is an opportunity for artists far and wide to get involved in an exciting new exhibition next year (from May to June  2024) at the People's Gallery, Kendal Museum.   "Rock Solid? 2"  builds on the success of the original Rock Solid? exhibition which took place in 2012 featuring some of the biggest names in Cumbrian Art.  Cumbria County Council's momentous decision not to take any further steps towards Geological Disposal of very hot nuclear wastes under Cumberland's coastal fringe was taken in January 2013.  

The plan is now back with a vengeance to emplace hot nuclear wastes not only under the Coastal Fringe but also under the Irish Sea for which invasive investigations have already begun.

Rock Solid? 2 and its events will explore the diversity of Lakeland's geological heritage and the plan to use that geology to try to contain man's most long lasting legacy - very hot nuclear waste.

Project Co-ordinator Marianne Birkby said that she is delighted that Martin Greenland, winner of the John Moores Painting Prize has agreed to be Guest Artist

ENDS

More information : https://rocksolid2.blogspot.com/2023/09/winifred-nicholson-at-milnthorpe.html

All best 

Marianne