Yesterday I popped in to see Revd Dr Ayla Lepine, Associate Rector at St James’s Piccadilly.
Ayla is both a priest and an art historian. Immediately before this job she worked as a curator at the National Gallery.
And she has played a big role in my own artistic journey, commissioning me to create nearly 40 portraits of people associated with Hampstead Parish Church, just before the pandemic.
For yesterday’s session, part of a series exploring people in their offices, I caught Ayla in a quiet moment lying on her office sofa, absorbed in a current favourite book, Black Liturgies.
She joked about how transgressive it felt to lie down with a book during working hours.
I reminded her it is a book of liturgies, and she replied with a smile, “Yes, and it’s Lent.”
St James’s Piccadilly, designed by Christopher Wren and damaged during the Blitz in 1940, provides an ace backdrop for someone whose work weaves together creativity, spirituality, and inclusivity.
Its diverse congregation reflects this spirit: on Ayla’s shelf sits an icon of Harvey Milk, the gay rights campaigner.
Our meeting was carefully scheduled to take place as (final pic) a vast magnolia blossomed outrageously outside Ayla’s window.
Thank you for looking at this specimen of work in progress #wip.
If you’re curious about commissioning a portrait or just want to see how this one develops, stay tuned.
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Comments on Instagram included this:
"I heard a sermon by Revd Dr Lepine, given at a service in praise of creativity during the artists’ day at the RA Summer Exhibition. It was so beautiful that there was barely a dry eye in the congregation. Extraordinary." - Emma Carlow-
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