Paintings inspired by St Mary’s

For centuries, St Mary’s has captured the imagination of local artists and has featured in their work. Here is a gallery of four paintings from the Beverley Art Gallery featuring St Mary’s. It includes The Wreath by Mary Dawson Elwell (in which St Mary’s tower can be seen through the window). Completed in 1908, this is one of Mary Dawson Elwell’s most famous works and was on display at the 1909 Royal Academy annual exhibition. This gallery also includes Thomas Bonfrey Burton’s iconic image of St Mary’s by moonlight.

Below are some works painted in more recent times. Please send to us your own paintings inspired by St Mary’s if you’d like them to be exhibited on the website, using the upload form on the parent page (the page titled Poet’s Corner).

“Not the Minster” (View of St Mary’s from Ladygate)
by Katherine Marriott Randle (acrylic on canvas, 70x100cm)

2018

Katherine writes:

This painting was inspired by a moment in the autumn of 2018, when I was walking up Ladygate after a grey and rainy morning.  Without my noticing it, the sky had cleared into the brightest blue, and suddenly a glorious golden light lit up St Mary’s.  The whole church seemed to glow, and the world stopped for a moment.  I have tried to capture that moment, with the contrast of the magnificent tracery blazing against the perfect autumn day and the dark, still-damp Ladygate with its crooked walls, sparkling here and there with reflections.

This painting has now been donated to and accepted by Castle Hill Hospital in memory of my parents, Guy and Diana Randle, who were both cared for magnificently by the Queen’s Centre; the intention is for patients, relatives and staff to share a little bit of the magic of St Mary’s.  

Katherine has also provided this video montage of the painting being made: