Notes on the image: Virgin and Child by Janet Boulton

Part of Janet’s Eye Music series, inspired by plainchant notation, this is one of three works of Janet Boulton’s donated to Blackfriars by her daughter, Jess Baines. She collaborated with Joe Scarffe of the Birmingham Conservatoire, who invited her to participate in a group exhibition of musical graphics at Frontiers Music Festival in 2014, followed by further exhibitions at Keble College, Oxford, and the Milton Gallery, St. Paul’s School, London. Each of these events involved live performance responses, including plainchant, solo performance on violin, bassoon and piano, and electronic improvisations. Jonathan Arnold sees this as an exploration of the movement in the liturgy and in the believer’s heart from darkness to light and from despair to hope.

Janet Boulton (1936-2024) was born in Wiltshire and studied at Swindon School of Arts and Crafts (1953-55) and Camberwell School of Art (1955-58), and had a long career as an artist and also as a teacher, being remembered for her authority, freedom and sensitivity. With a rural childhood, a love of gardens and an interest in botany, much of her work, both in acrylics and watercolour, was centred on nature. Blackfriars became an important spiritual home to her in later years.