The two women whose conviction began the Salon, and the belief in beauty, truth and connection that still holds it together.
Poet, priest and singer, and founder of The Cambridge Salon...
Helen is a poet, priest and singer: vicar of two rural parishes and "college mother" of The Moorings, Cambridge, where she read theology at the University.
Before the church, she built a life in music and enterprise, starting her own record label and clothes line while living in Tanzania.
She is mother to two children and wife of James Orr, philosopher of religion, professor and Head of Policy to Reform UK. She is the daughter of the Rt Revd Sir Simon Barrington-Ward, and she is now writing a book about him.
Beneath all of it runs a single conviction, that we must let the light in, and it guides every endeavour she takes up.
Drawing us into the enduring beauty of nature...
In a world that scatters our attention, Katherine hopes her work can draw us into the enduring beauty of nature. Through her paintings she seeks to create a visual space for deliberate attention, drawing the eye toward what is already present rather than away from reality: stillness, goodness, grace and beauty.
Inspired by her love of nature, the changing seasons and the weather, her paintings capture those intangible and fleeting feelings we can all have when out in nature, experiences that draw us out of ourselves into something much greater and beyond sight; something transcendent.
Exploring themes such as memory, the elements, light and horizon lines, her work has been described as wistful, sensitive, "full of possibility" and deeply evocative. Alongside the natural world, she is inspired by poetry and literature, including works by William Wordsworth, Elizabeth Goudge, Mary Oliver, and the Psalms.
Katherine is a mother. She holds a PhD and is part of the research strategy team at the University of Cambridge.
