ALLEGORIES OF HEAVEN:
An Artist Explores the Greatest Story Ever Told
By Dinah Roe Kendall, with 'The Message' text by Eugene H. Peterson . Piquant, PO Box 83, Carlisle, CA3 9GR (www.piquant.net). H/b, £12.99
ISBN 1 903689 12 0
Dinah Roe Kendall, who lives in Sheffield, studied at London's Slade School of Art from 1948 to 1952. Lucien Freud wanted her to sit for him, Stanley Spencer's daughter Unity was a fellow-student. It was an exciting time in the British art scene.
Dinah looked at and learned from such artists as Jacob Epstein, Spencer and many more. Now 78, Grandma Moses she is not. The nostalgic world of primitive painting is far removed from her vibrant biblical scenes, placed in modern contexts and painted in modern materials. The influence of her teachers is to be seen in her work, but she has moved on from them, developing over the years a style that is distinctly her own.