Metamorphoses : Bones, leaves and stones ...

pencil (and bones) on paper

I have been drawing flowers and bones from direct observation, noticing changes in form happening in slow motion through time and space as they metamorphize from buds to blossoms, and inevitably wither, dry and fade. Paying attention to the simple reality of flowers in a vase is a study I have set myself over the summer as a meditation/art practice to explore analogies between the forms of human anatomy and plant morphology. I am also interested in architectural and spatial geometry which is present in the pictorial space with its vertical and horizontal axis. The particular character of the lily is evident in patterns of both growth and decay, and it's signature lines of motion, defined by curves and counter curves, which it describes at each stage in a movement which begins by reaching upwards with closed buds, opening in swaying horizontals and diagonals, and then finally sinking downwards in drooping dried cocoons as it sheds petals and leaves to the ground. At each stage the forms and shapes it adopts are worthy of close attention, as they have both individual and general qualities that are very engaging. No phase is more or less beautiful or repellant than any other. Despite this it is is rare to find images of flowers that directly focus on any stage other that the blossoming phase when the scent, form, and colour are at their most alluring and magnificent. Most people, perhaps, discard the wilted blossoms without taking time to contemplate them and so miss an essential and whole understanding of the flower and it's potential meaning, which is, as it were, 'hidden' in full view.

Pencil on paper. Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Phase 4

Bone, branch, leaf and hand

Earth, fire, air, water

All conditioned things,

Space, time, circle squared

Turning line to point,

Nowhere is now, here,

Centre, seed, and soil,

The flower in the sun,

Deathless, blossoming

Encircling emptiness.

Poem: July 2024 Hartridge, Devon/ Brussels, Belgium

Pencil and acrylic on paper. Phase1

Phase 2

Pencil and acrylic on paper

The Devil's Law Case

John Webster

[All the Flowers of the Spring]

ALL the Flowers of the Spring

Meet to perfume our burying :

These have but their growing prime,

And man does flourish but his time.

Survey our progresse from our birth,

We are set, we grow, we turne to earth.

Courts adieu, and all delights,

All bewitching appetites ;

Sweetest Breath, and clearest eye,

Like perfumes goe out and dye ;

And consequently this is done,

As shadowes wait upon the Sunne.

Vaine the ambition of Kings,

Who seeke by trophies and dead things,

To leave a living name behind,

And weave but nets to catch the wind.

Pencil on paper

Charcoal on paper

'The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.'

Dylan Thomas

https://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/the-force-that-through-the-green-fuse-drives-the-flower