'Restraint'- Small Meadow Painting
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Title: Restraint
Size: 28x36cm (11”x14”)
Medium: Acrylic on cradled panel 1.5 cm deep
AVAILABLE AT CANVAS GALLERY PLYMOUTH
About this painting: 'Restraint' is a little gem of a painting radiating golden warmth & summer sunshine. The simplicity of a wild carrot umbell on a hazy sunny day draws attention to how the kittle things we pass by can be beautiful/
We live in such a huge busy world, with much going on. From world events & news to our own lives, work, family, there is so much bombarding our minds with information & activity.
I often feel totally overwhelmed by it all & find the need to pull back from the huge big picture & focus my thoughts on a more restrained focus. Sometimes that may be just my home & nearest & dearest, other times I’ll take my world right down to a tiny space of simplicity.
There are many places where I can totally blot out external stimuli from the world & find rest & comfort in small things. So often it leads me to natural places where the gentle breeze is a soothing balm & birdsong the only sound. I can just let go of any worries or brain noise by focussing on the movement of air through the grasses or the intricacy of a simple meadow flower.
When I was younger, I wanted the noise & constant activity of a city or big group of people but as time goes on I find a need for solitude & simplicity. I’ll often drive the few miles to the beach & just sit finding pebbles with beautiful patterns or letting the motion of lapping waves be a meditation. Or I’ll flop down amongst the grasses & discover a universe of its own in a few feet of growth.
I think I’d go bonkers if I didn’t have these places to escape to. The funny part is that in those little spaces I can find endless interest & wonder. I’ve been painting a whole series of meadows recently sitting in the garden. I realised that one particular area where there is a comfy dip in the ground has generated a whole wealth of subject matter. In a few feet of meadow, I could find a thousand different things to paint. That realisation sort of takes me into thoughts of how what we focus on affects us.
It’s like have a lens which moves from the tiny macro world to a wide angle of the rest outside. I find I can then shift my thinking like turning the lens to focus on as tiny or as huge a perspective I find comfortable in any moment.
Sounds a bit ‘ out there’ I know but knowing that I can decide how much I let in gives me a sense of safety & comfort. A knowing that I’m in control of what affects me.