St Leonard’s Church - Seaford, East Sussex
“What a thrill it was to have you with us yesterday; and to receive into the church your truly splendid altar frontals and altar. Your work is beautiful. We need to just sit and soak it all in. Those colours with their flow and movement and vibrancy are fantastic. They draw the eye in, from anywhere in the church, and excite further enquiry. And the wood of the altar and the graceful shape and size are stunning and fit so well into the wider context of the dais and sanctuary. Thank you, thank you, for what you have given us.”
Reverend Hugh Atherstone
St Dunstan’s - Mayfield
“I have worked with Polly Meynell on two separate occasions. Firstly, for the design of a Lectern–Fall for our Lady Chapel and more recently a double-sided High Altar Frontal.
Polly’s attention to design and detail, her understanding of the Liturgical context, and her love of vibrant colours all make working with her an enjoyable discovery and partnership. Polly likes to consult and talk through her ideas with you throughout the design process and that’s what I appreciate most of all. I recommend her warmly.”
Father Nigel Prior
Guildford Cathedral
“Working with Polly was a joy and we are thrilled by the success of this Golden Jubilee commission.
The finished copes are beautifully made and make a striking impression in Guildford Cathedral.”
“I am delighted to have the opportunity to commend the work of Polly Meynell.
In 2010, Guildford Cathedral launched a limited competition for the design and making of a set of five Chapter copes to mark the Cathedral’s Golden Jubilee in 2011. We invited three designers to submit their initial responses to the brief. The choice of Polly Meynell was unanimous.
We were impressed both by the way Polly responded to the colour and texture of the building, and also by her imaginative response to the theological context of the commission. Guildford Cathedral is dedicated to the Holy Spirit, and Polly’s proposal took a single gift of the Spirit as the inspiration for four of the copes (knowledge, counsel, understanding, wisdom), and the remaining three gifts (fortitude, reverence and awe) as the joint inspiration for the fifth.
The finished copes are beautifully made and make a striking impression in Guildford Cathedral.
Working with Polly was a joy and we are thrilled by the success of this Golden Jubilee commission.”
Reverend Canon Dr Nicholas Thistlethwaite
St Andrew’s - Crawley
“Without doubt the results have been truly amazing and where we as a building team thought we might be taking some risks the whole scheme was warmly received by the whole church without a single negative comment.”
“When we started work on our new Church and Community Centre in Crawley we found that together with our architect we were clear about the form and function we wanted for the new building. However, when it came to choosing a colour scheme we suddenly realised that this was an extremely difficult decision for us to make. We realised that “colour” is a specialist subject, but not only that, none of us on the Building Team felt confident enough to make the ultimate decision because mistakes would be costly. We also realised that choosing the right colour would make or break the whole finished building, and it all came to a head when with time pressing on we needed to choose the fabric colour for the new chairs.
It was at this point we decided we needed to employ the services of someone with an understanding of colours and so we approached Polly Meynell and asked her to act as our colour consultant. We gave Polly a clear brief and asked her to come up with a colour scheme primarily for the main worship space but also for the café and then the whole building.
Much to our delight, Polly came up with a scheme that was really exciting and yet at the same time quite challenging. Without Polly’s help we know that we would have gone for a much more conservative “safe” scheme, but Polly encouraged us to be much bolder in the colour scheme and use colour to make a statement. Without doubt the results have been truly amazing and where we as a building team thought we might be taking some risks the whole scheme was warmly received by the whole church without a single negative comment.
To finish off the building we saw the need to add some colour to the walls and so we commissioned Polly to create some pieces of artwork for the main worship space and the chapel. Once again, Polly excelled in coming up with some stunning pieces that not only finish the building off beautifully but also bring glory and honour to God.
We at St. Andrew’s cannot thank Polly enough for the fabulous work she has done for us and we would thoroughly recommend her to anyone who needs advice on colours, fabrics, or who are looking to commission some original artwork.”
Reverend Richard Poole