There’s a reason Zoe Taylor’s artwork was featured in the Blooming Lovely! exhibition at Queen Street Gallery, Neath, during the summer, because, frankly, they are. But behind the vibrancy of her floral compositions is an equally beautiful story of personal rediscovery and finding joy in the face of constraint.
Zoe tuned back into her creativity during lockdown when Multiple Sclerosis meant she was classed as vulnerable and she and her family isolated. When restrictions allowed, she found solace on the slopes of Kelston Roundhill near her Keynsham home and has captured it in different tones in several paintings. ‘I would sit and watch the world go by,’ she reflects. ‘It’s a place you can go and know life carries on.’
In 2023, aged 50 and with her children grown up, Zoe made a pivot towards art. ‘I paint at home due to my MS and I realised there’s only so many pieces of art I can have in my house or give people,’ she jokes. Zoe decided to ‘get a bit brave’ and began approaching local establishments such as the Deli@Keynsham and Flourish Foodhall & Kitchen, Saltford, who were eager to display her art.
Since then she has been represented by Gallery 57 in Newport and Broadway Contemporary Art in the Cotswolds, where her artwork, Water lilies on the run, sold within an hour of being displayed. She often uses pre-loved frames, merging them into her paintings which use textured paste to build layers and depth.
Although delighted by the response to her work, Zoe is motivated by the achievement she feels when creating, especially in light of having lost the use of her left arm for a time before regaining the dexterity in her hand. She finds painting therapeutic and, working largely from home, a way to bring the outside in.
‘Getting out isn’t always easy,’ she reveals, and we discuss the many ways this is relevant for people from the impact of anxiety and workload to the practicalities of having young children or bad weather. By working with nature as her main theme, Zoe’s artworks bring the outside in for all who encounter them.
Zoe is producing prints of her paintings to make them accessible for a wider audience and is relaxed about what direction her art goes in next. ‘I’m one of those people who’s always crafting,’ she says. ‘You name it, I’ve done it.’ She enjoys knitting and makes handmade pebble pictures as other creative outlets.
‘Above all, with whatever I create, I seek to invoke vitality and happiness,’ she explains. She has depicted Weston-super-Mare beach, Rhosilli Bay on the Gower Peninsula and abstract seascapes in her art alongside her eye-catching floral pieces.
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Nearly three decades on from her death, the life and work of artist and sculptor Rachel Reckitt continues to ripple. A retrospective of her work opened at the Museum of Somerset, Taunton, last month and will be on show until March 2025, and there are wider connections throughout the county.
Reckitt moved to a large country house near the village of Rodhuish, southeast of Minehead, in 1922 as a teenager and her home, Golsoncott, hosted evacuees during World War II. The house was sold after her death and a charitable trust, The Golsoncott Foundation, formed from her estate. It has donated over a million pounds to the arts, including to Contains Art, which manages the arts and culture programme at nearby East Quay in Watchet.
Dedicated to learning throughout her life, from studies at the Taunton School of Art and Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London to training as a blacksmith in her 60s, Reckitt mastered many different artforms including wood engraving and stone carving. Her wrought iron and aluminium piece, Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, can be found at St Bartholomew’s church in Rodhuish.
‘She was a unique artistic talent who worked entirely on her own terms, moving across subject matter, styles and media,’ says museum exhibitions and programme manager Sarah Cox. The exhibition is the first major retrospective of Reckitt’s works in Somerset since 2001.
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