Fey Pomerance
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Dead Olive - New born vine
Tempera, 1956, 19" x 14"
© Fay Pomerance
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Night Prayer
36" x 24", Acrylic, 1975
"In the Name of the Lord God of Israel, may Michael (the protection of God) be at my right hand; and Gabriel (the power of God) at my left; before me Uriel (the light of God); behind me Raphael (the healing of God); and above my head Shekinat El (the presence of God)."
© Fay Pomerance
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Adam
1944, Watercolour, 25 x 18cm
© Fay Pomerance
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Spirit of Good
1944, Watercolour, 25 x 18cm
© Fay Pomerance
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The Sphere of Redemption Part I
Part I: Lucifer's Creation of Hand, Tempera, 4' x 9'
Before the creation of man, Lucifer becomes initially concscious through a drop from the celestial oceans, which enlivens his eye when the Divine injunction "Let Us make Man in Our Image" is uttered. He strives to gain for himself the power of individual will with which he forsees man will be endowed. The symbol of this power is the right hand, which he conceives through his wing's union with the Spirit Fire. When the hand is delivered he uses it, first to destroy that wing, and then to create his own left hand. Once it is formed, Lucifer uses the might of the left hand perversely and allows the right hand to wither. This brings about his fall to the under regions of the universe, and the loss of the seed of redemption from the withered palm of his right hand, where, by virtue of his angel origin, it was seeded.
© Fay Pomerance
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The Sphere of Redemption Part II
Part II: Lucifer's River Quest for the Lost Seed of Redemption, Tempera, 4' x 9'
Lucifer attempts to race the under portion of the Sacred River in an effort to re-discover the Lost Seed of Redemption. He becomes a living skeleton and reaches the bottom of the river exhausted, but without the power to sleep. He lies there for such eons that he becomes as petrified stone. An exchange of thought-response with Eden - resultant from Eve's desire within the newly created Adam to become herself - causes Lucifer to stir, the stone to disintegrate and his rising from the mud in reptile form. He rises through the river and eventually draws himself up on the fringe of Eden, where he gazes towards the central Tree of Life.
© Fay Pomerance
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The Sphere of Redemption Part III
Part III: The Three-Fold Tree of Eden, Tempera, 4' x 9'
The Eden Theme of Genesis is here set against the symbol of the Threefold Tree of Life. The Divine middle shaft balances and supports the outer trunks of Good and Passion. Adam is of light, and cannot therefore be contacted directly by Lucifer, who, in his serpent form, persuades Adam, through Eve, to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil forbidden to him by God. Adam makes Passion Evil by choosing to direct it away from the Divine Will, and the knowledge of it's power, as distinct from Good, becomes general. This strains and divides the outer trunks from the oneness with the middle shaft, even as it drives Adam and Eve forth from Eden on their separate male and female adventures. Throughout the Theme, Adam represents universal man, who is not conscious, Lucifer, the ever-conscious individual, Eve, the intuitive subconscious operating between the two. The Flaming Sword, turned every way against them, concludes this section with the Eviction from Eden.
© Fay Pomerance
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The Sphere of Redemption Part IV
Part IV: The Way Back, Tempera, 4' x 9'
This section is conceived in a four-fold form: The Celestial World, in which Adam is equipped by the Shekinah (Divine Presence) as Ruler, Miner, Harvester and Guardian of the Celestial Sword: The Biblical world of his own and his descendant's history; and the world of man's subsequent history, through more recent centuries. Against these are set the Luciferian Kingdom.
Admitting his responsibilities in the cause of man's fall, Lucifer's serpent skin splits and is shed, and he establishes his power as Accuser and as Ruler over the realm of neglected, forgotten and destroyed things. His endeavours to released his hands, now adhered to his body, result in the formation of web-wings, with which he can beat only a half-flight to earth. Lucifer provokes on earth the events that will bring the bodies of men to his kingdom, where he continues his frenzied search for the Lost Seed of Redemption, by ravaging them.
© Fay Pomerance
Fay Pomerance is an Anglo-Jewish artist who was born in Birmingham in 1912. Fay left school at 16 to study for five years at the Birmingham Central School of Art and Crafts. On graduation she worked both privately and as a freelance commercial artist and after her marriage to Ben Pomerance in 1936 she became a full-time painter with her own studio.
She has always explored and developed major themes, a poweful pictorial series of watercolours 'War Vision' with its procession of carnage, oppression, genocide and homelessness preceded 'The Sphere of Redemption' cycle.
Since 1939 she has held 18 solo exhibitions including the Ben Uri Gallery; St Botoiph's Church, Aidgate, St James's Church, Piccadilly throughout the 1983 Piccadilly Festival, at municipal, private and university galleries, Nottingham Playhouse and the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield.
She has shown in mixed exhibitions at the Redfern, Molton and Leicester galleries in London and with the Society of Women Artists. Fay recently exhibited her ballet themes at Bristol Old Vic as part of the 21st anniversary celebrations of Dementia Care Trust.
She is represented in permanent collections in Staffordshire, Hull, Gateshead, Batley; the Ben Uri Gallery London, Vaughan College Ieicester; Trevelyan and Grey Colleges Durham and the Museums of Israel and in private collections in the UK, USA, Australia and Israel and by a stained glass window in the Singers Hill Synagogue, Birmingham.
Much of Fay's work is hung in her Bristol home where the garage has been transformed into a gallery to exhibit three of 'The Sphere of Redemption' panels and the Globe: this may be viewed by appointment