Blue Lotus

The first of the Harvest series, evolution of the loose sky mark.

Life drawing on paper, treated with varnish and embellished with Indian ink and oil paint.

Legendary London life model Barrie, sadly no longer with us, appears in this painting, whose start point was a drawing from 2018.

Large square painting of oil and Indian ink on treated paper drawings mounted on board.

Thinking about evolution, from reptilian prehistory through birds and into the mammalian realm.

Ink, oil on paper mounted on board.

Continuing the nature theme of the earlier Harvest pictures and adding a circular feel with water. The underworld monkey character from Chthonic Boom makes a cameo.

The deceased figure’s physical being is going back to the earth. But will her spirit make it into heaven or be banished to the other world? And in any case, don’t they have more fun down there than those of us who live above ground?

The last and largest piece completed for Blue Lotus, this painting is all about creation and downfall. It is meant to be read anti-clockwise from the eggs in the hand at the bottom of the composition, through self-realisation/corruption, deification and ego, before finishing with the tarot figures being taken to the next world by the dolphins.
Tangata manu (Bird-man) is the winner of a traditional competition by the inhabitants of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), where competitors would swim out to a nearby island to retrieve the first sooty tern’s eggs of the season. The winner was the first one back with the eggs in tact, who would be crowned bird-man. The figure in the painting is my version of the cult’s deity, Make-Make. In its hand is held a nest of eggs and a chick, a copy of a wood and ivory sculpture which was found in King Tutankhamun’s tomb.