Christ of Saint John of The Cross by Salvador Dali
Annette Aubrey-Bradshaw, Clyde Melville-Bain and the Arts at St Mary's the Virgin
Annette is a member of St Mary’s, and was commissioned in June 2024 as a Pastoral Assistant and Worship leader by Kevin Weston.
Annette works with liturgy and the arts in a multiplicity of ways and has a heart to see technology utilised in services, practically, and creatively, with her husband, Steve. As such, she is loving the process of beginning to develop the Liturgical Arts at St Mary’s, resurrecting the name Virgin Arts, to encompass the visual arts in particular, while also starting St Mary’s home grown performing arts in a multiplicity of ways, under the name she has always given her dance ministry, Pneumata.
As former Arts-Media Director of a Central London church network, Annette has lectured at Lambeth Palace, been invited to speak at Oxford University, be part of the Arts-Faith Forum at Windsor Castle, the Christian Dance Fellowship of Britain and National Prayer Breakfast, Palace of Westminster. She worked alongside the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, Bishop of the Arts, Rob Gillion in Knightsbridge, (also Spiritual Director) and Bishop of Kensington, also engaging with the Director of the National Art Gallery and Martin Richardson, THIS. ArchBishop John Sentamu was a Patron of hers over several years and Bishop James Jones also collaborated on work with Annette.
Annette’s professional background is also that of a Director-Choreographer, for TV/theatre/stadium work having choreographed/directed performances for Wembley Stadium, Wembley Arena, television, runway, internationally for leading brands, Creatives/with dancers from first line, A list artists/West End talent. She loves to blend multi media with all techniques, including aerial art, for all abilities, inclusively, to create unusual, unique pieces that reflect faith through social issues.
Annette was one of four Christian artists to be featured on Songs of Praise with One Show director, Garry Boon, Aled Jones and Michael Wakelin. She worked alongside Bill Tennant, Ex Producer Lord of the Dance, VP Columbia Motion Pictures
Following a life changing car accident, Annette relocated from London to Wales and is now excited to be stepping forwards to re engage with the Arts through St Mary’s.
Clyde Melville – Bain – one of Annette’s creative partners since 1999 – loves to share the Christian faith through prayer, worship, healing, prophetically and in evangelism. Clyde, a London-based, fellow dance professional, is enjoying supporting St Mary’s, too.
Some of her images with Pneumata with Clyde and others are at the foot of this page.
Annette has also recently been consultant for Tim Heeley, winner of the Musicians Medal in the Eisteddfod, and his Coleg Cambria students and her former community work includes inner city, young offender institutions, and prison work
Visual Art at St Mary's
We believe in God as our creator and the ultimate in creativity. As such, St Mary’s loves to celebrate the Arts and however diverse – from intimate to large – scale, we always embrace the opportunity to do so.
St Mary’s held the Virgin Art Exhibitions for many years and to this day, local artists and the community have been impacted. The stained glass windows, wood carvings and architecture also remain a source of beauty.
Buried at St Mary’s, is the renowned landscape artist, Richard Wilson. Celebrated for his ‘manly’ depictions of landscapes and generally considered to be Wales’ and one of the UK’s finest painters, Richard Wilson was a founder member of the Royal Academy of Arts. A window in the church is also dedicated to him.
UPCOMING
We are looking forward to curating an new type of art exhibition for St Mary’s – including incredible wax work, holographic and modern art to contemplate and celebrate the life of Jesus.
We look forward to renovating the Richard Wilson tomb and memorial over the upcoming year.
Performance Art at St Mary's
At St Mary’s we love to appreciate and help further the Performing Arts, whether through music, song, dance or drama. Over the years, we’ve held numerous productions – both secular and Christian.
Our latest guest physical drama with music was by Riding Lights and we celebrated Christmas with a service lit alternately with candles, lights and projections.
We also hosted Extreme from the US, as seen on our Home and Youth pages.
We have talented artists in our congregation and enjoy the extra life this brings to our church family.
