PRAISE

I have spent the last four days agonising over a large work on canvas. It is the first large work I have painted for a few months and it takes time for me to get back 'into the groove' so to speak. However, I am happy with the way things have progressed today. From experience I know the agonising is worth it!

One of my problems is that I have so many ideas running through my head that I find it hard to focus on developing one of them. So, the painting in progress is a large canvas 120 x 160 cm and I am inspired by the idea of shared destinies. This fits with previous [and continuing] ideas about shared histories. I am interested in how and why individuals or groups of people come together or cross paths. Is there a reason....some say there is a reason for everything and that it is our purpose to understand these reasons.

I am also interested in how crossed paths or more intense long term relationships can become part of myth, landscape and story. Do myths etc assist in leading into the future or do they hold us to the past? I think landscape holds many of the most powerful secrets including the fact that holding onto the past is impossible although many of us try to. Climatic and seasonal changes ensure that nothing ever stays the same. Yet, love of the land and nature will ensure we are constantly sustained.

The painting above 'In Joyful Praise' has been sent to Korea. It is in praise of those energies within the landscape. This painting is a prayer for our planet.

In Joyful Praise gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm