New Work: The Dodo.

I've been looking  at lots of images of Dodo's . No one knows exactly what they looked like so my picture is as much an imaginative production as any other. I particularly like the Dodo beak, their funny little wings and their chunky feathered bulk. I also think the Dodd is symbolic of all the other creatures that have been wiped out in recent centuries and it a good idea to have a n image of one around the house to remind us of what we are doing to the natural world

Latest Green Man!

 

Raw Oak Inspiration!

Oak Trees at Croxton Park, Leicestershire.

Benevolent Green Man

I am reeling after watching part of a programme about China on the Beeb.

Man is a veritable engine of greed, fuelled by plastic junk, burgers, fizzy brown liquid encased in even more plastic junk and stretched metal belching noxious fumes.

Most of the Green Men we make are rather stern looking and so they should be, how dare we take what is not ours only to destroy it?

Here is a slightly more benevolent and tired looking  Green Man, he has seen it all before but is here to remind us to do the right thing, learn to ride a bike.............take the bus..........plant a tree.

Tuesday Morning

Lumpy Silver Heart

Roses by the Backdoor

Cardoons from the allotment for drawing.

 

 

Such a beautiful morning. Blue skies, breeze, bird song, cats idling about, occasional crow from our cockerel whose body clock is a little challenged, porridge, fresh coffee, art materials to hand....This is good, dare I say.

 

I'm always nervous about celebrating a wonderful morning...is this something British? Sometimes I think we're only happy when we're miserable. We feel safe then. 

 

Another Hare over the Moon

 

Another Hare and Moon picture...

A couple of months ago we were in our favourite pub, The Wheel Inn, talking to Barcky, a local guy who does hedging, fencing, shooting and other such rural jobs.. We asked him if he came across a dead hare to drop it off to us so we could draw and photograph it.  A few days later he presented us with a dead hare. He'd shot it for us. We didn't want him to do this but having got the hare we felt that to do it justice we  ought to use it as the basis of our pewter pictures.  The hare had a notch in one of its ears so now in commemoration of him I'm doing all my hares with a notched ear. It's the least I can do for such a wonderful animal. Quite a size he was, too. You can tell by the table and chairs.

We wondered if we ought to eat him in order to justify him being shot. But that's a moral dilemma for another day. I buried him in the garden so he will enrich  the soil in which  I grow my fruit and veg. That thought helps.

I bought Barcky a drink when I next saw him. He's a good bloke, a genuine countryman who is always ready to help.

 

 

The Hare over the Moon

The Hare over the Moon

[Plus three startled crows and some moths]

The Hare over the Moon has become  a theme that we constantly return to. There's something magical about it.What that magic is about is hard to describe. But that's the thing about images we find magical: they are shimmering, ineffable, meaningful  in a a way that eludes words at the same time as being alluring, delightful and life affirming, The image needs to be left to speak directly to our souls.

Above is the latest one I've done. Price will be about £200.