Fun painting

I'm back in the city for a week. It will be good to get caught up on recent posts. Being restricted to only email on my Blackberry is a bit of a hardship for me this summer. The local community internet access site at the high school didn't get funded this year so we are without internet access. It's a loss for us.

I've had two weeks of fun painting and relaxation and the last two years of painting for my recent exhibition have faded away quickly. What is fun painting you ask? It's the painting you do to relax. It doesn't get a lot of heavy thought beforehand, it's not usually loaded down with meaning, it happens as you work, you take delight in it and you really don't care about much else except the process of creating. I continually return to poppies when I want to feel good when painting. I always do something fun for The Leyton Gallery Summer Show which starts next week. This summer is no different.

Garden Patterns #1, 16 x 16 in., acrylic, image transfers, paper and mediums on canvas

Garden Patterns # 2, 16 x 16 in. acrylic, image transfers, paper and mediums on canvas

I'm pressing my luck with the awkwardness of this composition but it gives the poppies a certain self consciousness that I like. I also worked to give them some individuality. Usually poppies look like they don't have a care in the world and are just hanging out in the wind.

These two works were inspired by the poppies in my friend Pauline's garden in Axemouth, Devon when we were there last summer. Alas, my photography of my work does not have the same vibrancy as the real thing.

In praise of poppies

It's not only the vivid colours and the tissue paper petals bobbing precariously on curved stems that explain my love affair with poppies. Poppies are interesting no matter what aspect of development they are in.
Ready to burst forth at any moment, you can almost convince yourself you see bits of red escaping its temporary prison.

This vivid orb is hard to ignore. I love this photo and eventually it prompted a painting.

Striving(2004) 10 x 30 in. mixed media

The blooming period of poppies is very short, lasting only two to four days before the petals begin to drop. Because of this brief bloom time, poppies are rarely used for cut flower bouquets.
What's left behind after the petals drop is just as beautiful as the flower in bloom.

While the poppy is in bloom the pod is only a small berry but it grows quickly and reaches 5 to 7.5 centimeters. Pods come in two shapes: round and slightly elongated. The seeds inside the dried pods found in fall gardens will become next years poppies. Initially pods are grayish green and somewhat shiny, but they change to a dull gray, a signal they can be picked and still maintain a hard shell. If you pick them too early the pods will shrivel up. Dried pods last indefinitely. I tie the pods together with a string and hang them upside down so the stems will dry straight. Be ready with something to collect the release of seeds. This was a big surprise the first time it happened.

Fertility series (2003)

Enclosed, 5 x 5 in. acrylic and modeling paste

Removed, 5 x 5in. acrylic and modeling paste

Spilling, 5 x 5in. acrylic and modeling paste

Revealed, 5 x 5in. acrylic and modeling paste

Tenacity

Messages 3, 5 x 5, mixed media collage

Poppies of every variety inspire me. They are repeated content in my work. I love the vibrant colours, paper thin petals and curving stems. They move and lean into the wind in precarious positions. One wonders how they stay upright. I think they are one of the best examples of tenacity in the floral kingdom.

Progression

Over the years I've painted poppies many times and in many different formats. Alas! I did not see any poppies while I stayed in the gardens at Birr Castle; it was the wrong time of year so there won't be any in this new body of work.

I've taken time away from painting in the last two weeks to review many of my photographs and paintings. I'm looking for something, but I don't know what. I'm hoping this process will help me come to terms with whatever it is I'm supposed to discover about my work. Following is a sequence of work from 2007 back to when I first started painting seriously. If anyone has any words of wisdom in what they see, I'd appreciate hearing them.

Progression #2 (2007) 10 x 34 , paper, photo transfer, acrylic paint, mediums on canvas

Poppies are one of my favourite flowers. I love their tallness, fragility of petals and boldness of colour. I love them at every stage, before bursting into bloom and spent. The seed pods have sculptural qualities that always make me want to paint them in a very stark style. The seeds themselves are prolific which account for the tenacity and spreading quality of poppies. Wild poppies, fragile and supple, create such delicate dots in the vastness of country fields.

Connections (2006) 16 x 16in. photo transfer, paper, acrylic paint, acrylic mediums on canvas

Connections is my favourite painting of this subject matter. Unfortunately it graces someone else's wall now, not mine. There are times I'm sorry I've put a work for sale. This is one of my biggest regrets.

Emerging (2005) 18 x 24, paper, acrylic paint and mediums on canvas

Big, bold and beautiful. What's left to say?

Cycle (2004) 12 x 12 in. acrylic on canvas

This was one of my first paintings executed long before my current interest in creating complex surfaces using many layers and different materials. Some of the same ideas are expressed in Connections, but in a totally different way. What a difference two years can make.

Displaced (2003) 7 X 12 in., acrylic paint and gel on canvas

I always feel a little sad to see a flower removed from its natural environment, but I selfishly continue to let my desire for their beauty overcome this reluctance. This following text is written vertically on the right.

Plucked from nurturing soil and forced to rethink the notion of home.