Captured Light: When Art Becomes an Experience
“In the end I aim to produce images in which the viewer can sense a feeling of whatever I am trying to express.”
Honor Surie
Sometimes an exhibition isn't remembered because of what we see.
It's remembered because of what we feel.
Over the past week at Mill Tye Gallery, we've watched visitors spend time with Captured Light in beautifully different ways. Some stand quietly in front of Honor Surie's paintings for several minutes before speaking. Others find themselves drawn back to the same piece more than once. And almost everyone who sits in one of Dan Hussey's handcrafted chairs reacts with surprise.
Without planning it, our visitors have become part of the story of this exhibition.
Feeling the landscape
Honor Surie's paintings are rooted in the Suffolk landscape she has lived alongside for decades.
Reading through her book, one sentence stayed with me more than any other:
“In the end I aim to produce images in which the viewer can sense a feeling of whatever I am trying to express. I am happy to use any materials that facilitate the desired outcome.”
It feels like a key to understanding her work.
Looking at the paintings in Captured Light, we can still recognise elements of the landscape, water, reed beds, trees and huge Suffolk skies, but they are not always described in precise detail. In his writing about Honor's work, John Miles observes that her recent paintings have become more abstract, while remaining accessible because the viewer is still aware of the origin of the image.
As a photographer, I found myself drawn closer and closer to the canvases, noticing scratches, washes of colour, translucent layers and marks that disappear when viewed from a distance.
The paintings seem to change depending on how close we stand.
Perhaps that is what Honor means by sensing a feeling.
A chair is made to be experienced
Across the gallery, Honor's son, furniture maker Dan Hussey, tells a story through wood instead of paint.
Dan has been designing and making handcrafted chairs since 1993. Working primarily with locally grown hardwoods, he specialises in steam-bent and laminated furniture, creating chairs that combine comfort, durability and distinctive design.
At first, we admire them as beautifully crafted objects.
Then someone sits down.
Yesterday one of our visitors, Moira, lowered herself into one of Dan's chairs and immediately smiled.
“It's like sitting on a throne. It's just beautiful. So much thought has gone into the work. It's not just any old wood; it's been thought about in the way that it's used. It's just wonderful.”
I loved that she described the chair through feeling rather than design.
It wasn't simply something to look at.
It was something to experience.
Looking with curious eyes
Another visitor, Sue, has been coming to Mill Tye Gallery for years.
She never misses an exhibition.
Standing amongst Honor and Dan's work she found herself studying details that many people might walk past.
“You can see Dan steams a lot of his wood to shape it. The lines of those legs are just beautiful.”
A few moments later she laughed and said something that perfectly describes the experience of wandering around a gallery.
“From a creative point of view... can you understand why I'm always sloping off around this gallery? I spend a lot more time in it. It's because there's so many things that just capture you.”
That sentence stopped me.
There are so many things that just capture you.
Not only is the exhibition called Captured Light, but each visitor seems to be captured by something different.
More than looking
As I've photographed this exhibition over the past few days, I've realised I haven't been documenting paintings and furniture.
I've been documenting encounters.
People remembering Suffolk landscapes.
People recognising craftsmanship.
People connecting memories, emotions and place with works made by two artists from the same family, each expressing the Suffolk landscape through their own medium.
Perhaps that's what makes this exhibition feel so special.
Honor paints landscapes that ask us to feel.
Dan makes chairs that invite us to sit, slow down and experience.
And somewhere between the two, visitors begin telling stories of their own.
Captured Light: Paintings and Chairs from Suffolk
by Dan Hussey & Honor Surie
If you haven’t yet made it upstairs to our first-floor Art Studio, we warmly invite you to come and experience this very special exhibition before it closes on Sunday 27th September.
Come and see it for yourself — you may find something you’d love to take home.
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