Greg Tricker – Bride of the Isles: Iona ~ The Eternal Spring

Bride of the Isles: Iona ~ The Eternal Spring explores the Gaelic legend of the life and faith of St Bride, cast adrift in a coracle from her native Ireland and washed ashore on the Scottish island of Iona. Opening to coincide with the feast day of St Bride, Piano Nobile is excited to present the most recent cycle of paintings by contemporary British artist, Greg Tricker.

Tricker travelled to Iona, immersing himself in the isolated beauty of the landscape and Iona’s historic sites of meditative piety. He was drawn to the figure of St Bride, the saint who brought Christianity to Iona at the turn of the fourth century AD. His extraordinary cycle of paintings is a powerful exploration of St Bride's personal and spiritual journey. Tricker’s works are imbued with the devotion of primordial Celtic Christianity rooted in the mysterious power of the natural world, illustrating a profound understanding of the saint’s life and achievements.

Working with a variety of painted media and traditional carved wooden frames, Tricker’s paintings are fired by the golden yellow of the sun, cobalt seas, emerald lakes and the orange of sacred rowan berries. His painting is rooted in a mystical innocence of spirit, constantly searching for the innate primitive honesty that lies within each of us. Tricker likens this to the purity found in depictions of peasants within the work of Jean-François Millet and Vincent Van Gogh, as well as that of folk art traditions.

Sister Wendy Beckett commented, It was a very great joy to see this extraordinary new work of Greg Tricker’s. He paints with such tenderness and with such a sense of longing. The poignancy draws us beyond what we see into what we long for and hope for. He validates the invisible Lord.

Tricker's reflective and sincere style of work, encompassing painting, sculpture and stained glass, is deeply intertwined with modern British art, for which he has gained international recognition. Recent series of work have been exhibited at Westminster Cathedral, Gloucester Cathedral, Peterborough Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral and, most recently, Reims Cathedral. His work is held in numerous private and public collections including the recent acquisition by St. Stephen's Church, Bristol of a stained glass diptych of St Clare and St Francis of Assisi.