Garden reconstructed


                                                           oil on canvas 120x120 cms  

There is the reality of the scene observed and then there is that of the scene experienced. In the case of my daily encounter with the garden that experience is always in flux and it is this shifting relationship which plays out on the canvas. There are times when one has to try to take hold of the changes through say, drawing, and times when the reciprocity which exists between the space without and the space within dislodges itself and can only be grasped at as in a fleeting moment. 

I began this painting by using black to set down what I thought might be happening: it was morning and the light was sharp. Colour came later, on another morning with shadow and sunlight moving slowly across the land as I stepped in and out of it.


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