The Vespers

Brian Clarke released 'The Vespers' in June 2024, a series of eight prints after his 'Vespers' series of watercolours, in collaboration with HENI Editions.

'The Vespers' are rooted in Clarke’s memories of roadside poppy fields, a recurring motif in his work from the watercolours, made between 2019 and 2020, to the 'Kabinettscheiben' stained glass panels, from 2019 to 2023. For Clarke:

‘[…] it’s like luminous gossamer; a petal that dissolves in your pocket when you’ve picked it, an angel’s wing material. No textile company could approach it; we can’t come within a mile of creating such a powerfully, intensely coloured diaphanous membrane as that. It feels like life itself. And it lasts for no time.’

'The Vespers' recreate Clarke’s characteristic paintwork in Giclée print on Cotton Smooth Rag, set within an oak frame, encapsulating what critic and curator Robert Storr has called his ‘deft command of gestural brushwork... able to eke out subtle suggestions of formal flux and volume from the various transparencies and opacities of a single spontaneous stroke...’.

Originally painted throughout the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and first exhibited at Phillips, London in 2021, these works capture Clarke’s activity during this turbulent time. He explains, ‘Vespers comes from the Greek hespera, meaning evening – they are evening prayers.’

'The Vespers' were available by application from HENI Editions, from 27 June until 8 July at 17:00 BST.