Roots and Wings, 2019-2020
“Trees and birds are recurring themes in my paintings but recently it has been the flock in flight that has captured my attention and imagination; the incredible synchronicity creating beautiful patterns and tessellations.”
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Migration is a theme very present in our world and questions of roots and being uprooted, of freedom and belonging are an unchosen reality for so many. A bird in flight can symbolise the freedom we dream of, and when in the company of a whole flock both liberty and community. I have enjoyed (and struggled with) finding ways of capturing with pigment that magical quality of light as it dances and flickers on water and through leaves. This is something artists have been exploring for hundreds of years, and I hope to continue.
Rosebay Willow Herb is a flower that reoccurs through this exhibition – it is also called Fire Weed or Bomb Weed because it thrives in land that has been scorched. It always lifts my spirit to see the haze of its magenta flowers reaching for the light on verges and wasteland.