Death and Rebirth
“Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the earth.
There are hundreds of ways to find your way home.
”
It has been a long time since I’ve blogged. My father has been ill for several years and died in February this year. This has greatly affected my work output. When a loved one is ill everything else diminishes in importance. The grieving process is something familiar to all of us; yet it seems a very lonely and personal thing as we all grieve in different ways. I am working through the process since his death of trying to start to live fully and work again. To find the joy in life as he would have wanted me to.
My new paintings for 2023 seem like something of a landmark, a rebirth. Some of them are brand new and others were begun several years before. It is only recently that I have had the time and mental space to bring them to fruition. They are all a celebration of the natural world and the solace it brings. The world of trees and plants, sun, moon, river and sea are the gifts that keep on giving. At times they are the greatest comfort available. It is difficult not to see nature as a set of individual deities, as gods in their own right. Nothing built with such exquisite perfection could have happened by accident. Recent work follows the tradition of paintings before. New paintings such as ‘Tales of the Riverbank’, ‘The Holme Tree’ ‘Enchanted Garden’ and ‘Walk Towards Ravenscar’ all celebrate and pay homage to the restorative power of the natural world. In the cycle of nature is all our lives, the inner states, the outer changes, the constant endings and beginnings, the deaths and rebirths.
I apologise for the cancellation of all exhibitions and teaching for this year but am delighted to be still taking part in North Yorkshire Open Studios. This will take place June 3rd-4th and 10th-11th . I hope you can make it.