I live in the small country town of Lewes, Sussex, in south east England – it’s an inspiring to place to have your home. Not only is it a lovely town with a rich history and well preserved architecture, it is also bordered by the wonderful Sussex Downs – we are in England’s newest national park.

If that isn’t enough to make anyone want to live here, it is also a town full of artists many of whom are also my friends. Two of them, Dawn and David Stacey (Dave to me), have just opened their latest exhibition, Shared Encounters,  round the corner from my house at Lewes’ excellent Hop Gallery. It runs until 13th March.

Dawn is a painter and Dave is a photographer and they have collaborated on a show that explores the many moods of the reclaimed Railway Land on the edge of town that is now a twenty acre nature reserve, ten minutes walk from my house. It is an inspiring place to visit but then so is this exhibition.

I have one of Dawn’s paintings on my living room wall and I’m lucky to be able to look at it every day. It depicts, in Dawn’s very distinctive style, a red dawn in November on the Railway Land Nature Reserve. Dawn’s work is an intriguing mixture of landscape and intense close-up which mixes realism and reductionism with near abstraction. It’s a style that reveals something new no matter how many times you return to look.

When she had a significant birthday last November, I thought I’d mark it with a poem, Red November, and, fortunately, both Dawn and Dave liked it sufficiently to get it framed and they asked if they could include it in the exhibition. I was proud to be part of their show but also thrilled to see poetry up there on the wall in a frame like any other work of art. I’d like to do more of this.

It’s fascinating to see Dawn’s railway land work alongside her husband Dave’s photography of the same location. Dave’s natural melancholy is not often on display when you talk to him but it is often the mood of his work. This cow is not just chewing the cud – things are seldom what they seem in Dave’s work. It was this quality, also found in Dawn’s paintings, that inspired the tone of my poem. I was very happy to be invited to the gallery on Saturday afternoon to read Red November surrounded by Dawn and Dave’s work.  If you can, do go along and take a look before the show ends on 14th March.

My novel, Stephen Dearsley’s Summer Of Love, was published  on 31 October 2013. It is the story of a young fogey living in Brighton in 1967 who has a lot to learn when the flowering hippie counter culture changes him and the world around him.

The post Dawn and Dave Stacey and my poem inspired by their work in Lewes. appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.

At least two of the people I celebrated Twelfth Night with this year are artists and they just also happen to be married. David and Dawn Stacey are, I think, a talented pair. I have one of Dawn’s paintings on my living room wall and it always draws comments from visitors. She has a distinctive style and this, one of her Lewes paintings, is a fascinating mix of the familiar and the obscure. I see something new in it every time I look.

Dave is a photographer, mostly of intriguing landscapes but he also has an interest in portraiture and this rather frightening photograph of me is certainly unconventional. I really like it and I’m content to hear people tell me that it isn’t very flattering. Maybe I should ask Dave for a print to hang on the wall or would that be just too scary? Like Dawn’s painting, every time I look at Dave’s photograph I see another fascinating mix of the familiar and the obscure. I think he must’ve noticed that I’m not always joking. Clever stuff. I see something new in this every time I look too.

I like both pictures and I’m delighted to have interesting friends – so thanks Dawn and Dave for everything not just your art.

If you’re interested in seeing more of their work here are links to their websites:

www.dawnstacey.co.uk/

http://www.davidjstacey.com/

The post Dawn and David Stacey: two pictures by two friends. appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.