The Centre, Newlyn, from April 23 until May 23
WHILE ONE would expect the paintings by Newlyn-based Bo Jeffares Sekine that make up her exhibition Roads of Life, being held in the Fal Building, Truro and Penwith College, to be concerned in some way with the sea, living and working as she does almost within arm's length of the old harbour there, she surprises with a series of landscapes, striking essays in colour in which, as it has been said, "Yin Yang symbols and Roads of Life imagery interweave".
However, although they may not contain direct references to the sea it must play a part in them as she is an artist who is very much concerned with nature, the environment and the universe itself. Indeed, she follows this exhibition with another being held at The Centre, Newlyn, entitled Universes.
One who might be described as being a child of the universe, her background could hardly be more universal. Born in Dublin, with Scottish and Belgian ancestors, she was brought up in Australia where she began painting as a child, and later educated in this country and in Eire.
She gained her first degree in Art History at the University of Reading, her second an MA in 19th century art criticism at the Courtauld Institute, University of London, followed by a PhD on the artist in 19th century literature at Trinity College, Dublin.
She has since taught English literature at Trinity College, Dublin, and at Tamagawa University, Tokyo, and Fine Art at the University of Stirling, Scotland. She was an animateuse of the arts for the education authority in Fife, Scotland and, since 1981, has been a director of Academic Advisory Services.
An accomplished author as well as artist, her publications range from The Artist in 19th Century Fiction to studies of The School for Scandal and The Beaux Stratagem.
One who came to Newlyn at the invitation of Terry Frost, who she first met as a schoolgirl when he came around with other Gregory Fellows in Leeds where her father was a Professor of English, and met again when studying art at the University of Reading, and again much later, at a party in Scotland. It was then that he extended the invitation to visit him in Newlyn.
As she says: "I arrived in January to champagne, camellias, and a turquoise sea. I decided then to settle in Newlyn and I've appreciated it and its community ever since."
Nothing if not optimistic, she uses her pictures as a means of suggesting how landscape can explain personal growth and evolution as we each plot our own roads through life.
Paintings that reflect all manner of influences, from the minimalism of Japan where she lived and worked to the bright Mediterranean colour which she first absorbed as a child when in Australia and later when living in France and Italy, and evoke the beauty of the natural world in today's industrial age, at the same time they also owe something to her interest in all forms of healing and complementary medicines which includes, as she says, "colour's power to both stimulate and create peace within".
As pleasing as they are peaceful, as satisfying as they are stimulating, Bo Jaffares Sekine's Roads of Life can be seen in the Fal Building, Truro & Penwith College, College Road, Truro, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, until April 19. Her exhibition Universe follows a few days later at The Centre, Newlyn, where it can be seen from April 23 until May 23. Central to this exhibition will be her Celtic crosses that, as she says, "will suit a building which already has a Celtic cross in copper and wood, made by local crafts people, built into it".
She is also hoping that this might lead to the setting up of a community garden shaped in the form of a Celtic cross in which all can share and adds: "We'd be grateful if anyone with practical ideas and willing to help in finding and obtaining a piece of land for this community garden in Newlyn would contact The Centre on 01736 365890."
article copyright THE CORNISHMAN