Words and Pictures

Recently I've been adding a side dish of rhyming words to be served with my paintings. I thought I would share a few here.

They stand as my Artist Statements in place of pompous Art speak. 'Details (prices and sizes) of these painting can be found in Galleries.

My Heart you Choke

This painting is quite inktense

Acrylic too if that makes sense

I took a different point of view

A fairy’s eyes peering through

I built it up square by square

every part with fine brush hair

Nature’s architectural might

All up close is sheer delight

Let your eye to enjoy a wonder

from guilded leaf to buildings yonder

A very British cloudy day

Still has beauty so they say

It’s title is ‘my heart you choke’

for my brave friend, who lost her bloke

So now I’ve broke my golden rule

This one’s not funny;

Love, April Fool

Who’s been sitting in my chair?

This was great Granny's nursing chair

Now mostly no one sits down there

It’s Morris print, honey wood

And fancy books are all things good

It’s underneath the Goggle box

From empty chair, my conscience knocks

Don’t watch that thing make art be free

Won’t move? Okay then, just draw me

From a sketch a painting grew

This humble corner framed anew

I made it with my oil paints

My little chair is like the saints

Enjoy the patterns and shinny stone

An invitation to my home

I built it up with layers like history

Just to add a little mystery

Through head and heart into my hand

Art pops out, you’ll understand

Head Under Heals

I felt for this poor Venus chic

She’d lost her head in bushes thick

An old walled garden and statue too

Create a rather charming view

I thought it would be quite the lark

To add some drama; with light and dark

I made the colours strong and broody

What’s through the gate? Is Venus moody?

Here it is, my clear intention

The fuller story’s your invention

I made layers of marks, shapes and scratches

Thanks to the brushes in dispatches

The endless leaves I set to render

Each one with loving care so tender

This painting has a little mystery

She nods and winks to olde Art history

Buttery oils and acrylic ink

Are my chosen ways to think

They help me sing my silent song

And forgive me when I get it ‘wrong’

As we ponder all this through

I wonder what’s your Venus view?

Make Lemmonade

lockdown sent us all quite mad

It was strange and scary and really sad

Life was still so I made still life

(Bits in between were Mum and wife )

I had this rather strange idea

To lock up some lemons like our fear

I made a symbol of escape

an kind of indoor still life, landscape

The frame, is not just for show

It's in the painting too you know

Lemons monuments sit

By fabric mountains and sea net knit

I made it in acrylic ink

And went away and hand a think

Later, in a another year

With renewed hope and faded fear

I moved on and had another go

With oils this time, there was much more flo

Finally, with much less woe

Organic lemons and plastics glow

My first attempt is underneath

Like all the feelings tucked beneath

When life gives lemons; make lemonade.

Even if you are afraid