fruits of the fields and trees…

its not just about sweeping landscapes, there’s the same sensual beauty in the fruits of the fields and the trees… each has its own fascinations of shape and colour for translating into the glorious, pleasures of oil painting…

banana…in spicy chocolate…
oil on canvas 70 x 113 cm

ideas develop into endless variations… each demands to be explored… they all seem like gifts and equally important…

banana in soft dark chocolate…
oil on canvas 70 x 100 cm

revelation…

sitting quietly, thinking about bananas, they become a revelation of natures beauty and bounty… that beautiful yellow… the soft outer skin, the fruit within… seems like a miracle…

banana in raspberry coulis…
oil on canvas 90 x 130 cm

back to the garden…

I made a garden around my cottage… sowed flower seeds in trays and pricked them out as they became seedlings… potted them on and acclimatised them in the warmer spring days… eventually planted them out in drifts in sunny corners… in summer i sat and watched them in the sunlight…

The garden of Acorn Cottage summer 2016

i found a beautiful pastel-pink poppy
in the garden… Blake’s “heaven”…

for a long time, i wondered about its visual story and played with it in several digital paintings…

Study for the ‘Poppy’ series
Digital painting made using Affinity software, 2022

then thought maybe i’d paint a portrait in oil…

Chris Edwick - listening, a poppy blooms, sugar pink... oil on canvas 70 x 100 cm

listening, a poppy blooms, sugar pink…
oil on canvas 75 x 100 cm

of mango and the regatta and of the pleasures that live in houses…
oil on canvas 90 x 130 cm

sensuality is the subject… after the banana, I thought it important to paint a mango

the voluptuousness of its shape and colour inspired this portrait… i’ve started getting pleasure from writing on the canvas…

Mattisse made a painting called “the silence that lives in houses” i adapted my title from his…

study for the “daisy” series
digital painting made using Affinity Publisher software, 2022

i had a deep fascination for this daisy… spent weeks looking at its visual story… playing with its possibilities in digital sketches, trying to de-construct its endless, beautiful variations…

then i began with this small painting on board…

in the small world be, sweet daisy…
oil on board 46 x 61 cm

and moved on to this larger scale…

i’m half crazy, oh for the love of you…
oil on canvas 90 x 120 cm

what gives pleasure…?

i think thats the most important question… focussing on that… the search for something profound… the search for meaning and value in art and life… and all my thoughts lead to this question… i think its where the answer lies…