PAGES FROM MY GARDEN 2024 – 25
An Exploration
The images here represent a beginning, or ‘pages’ from an exploratory sketchbook of sorts. They examine a long relationship between myself, an artist & gardener, & my Suffolk garden: nurtured & negotiated for over 32 years. This coastal plot & my wider ‘garden’ that stretches north & south to the sea have long been a theme in my work. Recently however, I have begun to consolidate my responses and understanding of it all. Some Night Garden images are included as they are overarchingly part of this exploration too.
Just like the candle; a repetitive theme in my work, all aspects of the garden form another expression of Vanitas, marking Time, Change, Brevity, Loss. The burst, then abundance, the retreat, then the shutting down; there is within all this an overarching fragility that makes each moment special.
My gardening is unreliable & I plant by look, feel and randomly. Its’ appearance is relaxed to unkempt. Plants are moved, removed, reshaped & moved again whenever the thought seizes me – like a hapless theatre director. I am not good at planning. It all happens in the process. This is not an easy approach for me or the plants, but I do respect them all as essential characters in my theatre, doing their bit, all with a part to play.
This ‘hard won’ method of planting is also the way I paint & draw. I do not recommend it, often it is more archaeology than art – digging for an image that often isn’t there or falls apart at the last moment. Every painting is like starting from scratch – in the dark, no route map, no headlights, getting lost, many collisions.