Caught in the Brambles

Sometimes when I am painting I just get started, then when I feel it has concluded I assign a title. It is very intuitive, but I find that there are similar concepts and imagery that comes forth. In the case of ‘Caught in the Brambles’ I started by painting branches like language, every stroke is communicative. Thereafter I continued to add the foliage with separation of the sky across the central section, but I felt that there needed to be a focal point and being something of a lover of love, I added the love birds.

There was a time in my younger years, when I participated in a woodland game in the dark. Super fun, but I am not very good at that sort of thing. In an attempt to not get caught, I decided to take a detour alone through some undergrowth and got lost and largely attacked by masses of brambles. Something that I have never told anyone, but mostly because nobody ever cared to ask, despite arriving back to the start more or less as the last one. Whilst also painting I find my mind wanders to distant times and memories. With this painting I found my mind wandering to a time when I wandered alone to the top of a hill. There I found more fruitful brambles. I spent my lonesome afternoon picking blackberries. After a peaceful few hours foraging, I returned home to make jam for my friends. Sometimes the paintings are not deeply significant in the moment, but there is always something that comes from it without even consciously knowing where it will lead.

That time of my life was solitary but calm. Much of my life is marked by anxiety, but pottering at home, in the countryside, foraging, cooking and fun with friends. That sounds like the best kind of life, one steeped in the richness of creativity, nature and restfulness.  Now life is not anxious, but it is still some way away from the life that was. It is the kind of life I want my children to know, even if only in part. It’s a dream I have for myself and one for my children also. A slice of heaven and a glimmer of hope.