Open Eye at 40: Celebrating Open Eye Gallery’s 40th Anniversary

 

I hope you will be able to head along to the Open Eye Gallery to see these in person

Beautifully cushion mounted and framed in hand-stained oak by Detail Framing.

I was looking for something to paint early in 2021, whilst we were in deep lockdown before the world opened up. Rooting through my drawers of collected seeds, (that I am always meaning to do something with), I found this little seed pod. Sadly, it was broken, so I got out the glue and some thread, and thought I’ll tie this together whilst the glue is setting, and I then hung it from a bulldog clip on my art board. I collected this before I considered that labelling where I had picked a specimen up, and noting what kind of plant it was from, might be useful, but I really loved the shape and the different textures on the inside and outside of the pod, so silvery smooth and so rough and marked. 

After a few days of looking at this seed hanging there, I decided I really liked it, it reminded me of a wishbone drying, so I thought I would paint it with the thread, I pondered that maybe some wishbones need mending, and I felt as though I could do with some wishes. I liked both sides of the seed pod, so I decided to do two paintings.

Shortly after completing the first seed pod, and partway through the second, I came across these Photinia x fraseri, ‘Red Robin’ leaves in a concrete jungle near Haymarket. I walked past these container-based shrubs most days on my daily lockdown walk, and gradually they caught my attention. Though not a shrub that I particularly love, I am attracted to picking things up that I find on the floor and studying them for a bit… After collecting and examining a few, and rejoicing in the colour and the bitten away edges on the margins, I realised I could make the same wishbone shape that I had with the seed pod, and I got all excited! So I decided to do the same treatment, painting the back and the front of each leaf creating and completing the set of four.