Garden Pieces

Pictured on the workable with the paint barely dry: A Garden Piece (study), 2023, acrylic on canvas adhered to board, 10 x 10 cm.

Despite its diminutive size, it was a considerable challenge to resolve this work; I could have completed a substantially larger scale work in considerably less time. Just as I was about to consign the painting to the scrapheap of heroic failures, it began to come together, almost as if the damn thing had a will of its own and finally decided to cut me a break.

Yet in spite of the hours spent on A Garden Piece, whilst questioning if my time would be better spent elsewhere, and in the face of the painting’s many imperfections, the technical lessons I learned along the way were well worth it. 

As previously mentioned, the point of departure for the tattooed face is the embroidery panel A Garden Piece, designed and worked by May Morris in the months leading up to her death in 1938. Her exquisite work is pictured directly above, and below, most poignantly, is the label that is affixed to the reverse.

A garden taking flower

Currently on the work table: A Garden Piece, (study), 2023, acrylic on canvas mounted on board, 10 x 10 cm, followed by three earlier progress views. 

The study draws loosely - at this stage, very loosely indeed - from selected elements in A Garden Piece, 1938, an embroidery panel designed and worked by May Morris in the last months of her life, as the basis for the tattooed face.