Ros Mansfield with her painting Heaven Breaking Through

By Daisy Edwards

Guildford-based contemporary impressionist artist Ros Mansfield celebrated her debut art exhibition on Wednesday (April 22) with a private viewing at Open Grounds café, located inside Guildford Baptist Church.

Her exhibition, a series of paintings inspired by several creative pilgrimages to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, were the stars of the show, but the artist truly shone when she explained the journey she had taken, both physically and metaphorically, to reach her debut art show.

Edges of the Day

Speaking to The Guildford Dragon, Ros said: “It’s a really beautiful ending to the journey of making these, because it’s been a bit of a pilgrimage, actually. Just from the conception of the work through till now, so for me to have it all finally there, it’s a huge celebration.”

The theme of the exhibition was centred around the Edges of the Day, and Ros would head out at dawn and dusk to paint the incredible scenes she saw on the Holy Island, when night bleeds into day and vice versa: “I’ve been drawn to the dawn and the dusk, which are, to me, the edges of the day. But what I really feel about the edges is the reflection of other parts of our lives, when we feel maybe at the edge of things or in society, when we, as a society, can feel a bit on edge at the moment.”

The artist was inspired by her own personal faith and picked Lindisfarne as the subject of her series, as she believes it is one of the “holiest places on Earth”.

Quiet Arrival – Pilgrim Posts

The artist described all the paintings as “[her] babies” and, although she struggled to pick a favourite, she eventually decided: “My favourite one is […] Quiet Arrival, Pilgrim’s Post, because that’s the Pilgrim’s Post where you first arrive on the island, and it was the final painting that I finished – it felt to me as if I’d come full circle.”

Ros’s exhibition Dawn & Dusk – The Edges of the Day is available for public viewing until May 24 at Open Grounds Cafe, or you can view and purchase the paintings or prints on the artist’s website, www.rosmansfield.co.uk.