a portrait of Ming …oil painting

Ming contemplates

I decided to try a portrait of one of my cats yesterday and was pleasantly surprised with the resulting painting. I had a lot of fun playing with colour and value and catching that gleam in her eye. 🙂

Tom was inspired to write a poem to go with the painting that captures her personality wonderfully too!

alert intensity looks out
a presence in repose
confidence without a doubt
begat by extra toes

sharp attention to a point
where what is not might be
space and time meet at a joint
that only cats can see

soft Ming is watching worlds role by
and distant future scenes
as upon the chair she lies
content to reign as queen

painting (c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2017 Tom Radcliffe

the light of Provence …oil painting

the light of Provence

The focus here was to achieve the feeling of a sunlit day in Provence – the dance of the dappled light and the happy flowers below the window.

Tom’s sonnet for this painting imagines being behind that window. Lovely!

Light among the shadows hiding darkness
behind the glass transparent where the room
is cool with dappled dimness as the summer
day ascends and banishes the gloom
from secret places dark within the house
dust motes dance across the beams so bright
roses tap against the window panes
holding up a handful more of light
inviting out the occupants to day:
“Come into the warmth of welcome summer!”
call the flowers now in happy song
marching to the season’s swaying drummer.
Day is dancing, dappling the walls:
Melancholy melts and sadness falls.

image (c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2017 Tom Radcliffe

spring is cherry blossoms …oil painting

spring is cherry blossoms!

A small painting before Easter weekend to celebrate this long, slow Vancouver spring. It may be cooler than usual but that sure makes all the blossoms last!

This is just 6″x6″. The size is fun for quick studies and experiments – very freeing! This painting is based on a friend’s photo that she graciously let me use as inspiration. Thanks Claire!

Tom wrote a quirky haiku to go with these Taiwanese cherry blossoms. 🙂

foreshortened phloem
flower’s fragrant fabric
fine filigreed fire

painting (c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2017 Tom Radcliffe

peonies pink and white …oil painting

peonies pink and white

I have started up oil painting again – yay! I have done three very small (6″x6″) paintings for an online painting course – Once Upon a Time in Provence with Dreama Perry. I can’t recommend her courses enough – so much inspiration! I will not be posting the paintings I am doing as part of the course and following her instructional videos as they are her copyrighted material in terms of composition, method etc. However, as I go along, I will post other pieces I am doing.

This is a 9×12 oil on gesso board of two peonies in a blue jar using the alla prima method where oil paint is layered wet on wet in a single session. Here the challenges I was focused on were painting the white peony using a subtle variety of colours for the shadows and getting a pleasing effect of transparency and shine for the glass jar.

Tom’s poem to go with this one is a little melancholy but reminds us to see beauty and love life in the moment.

so pretty on the table in the sun
warming up the lonely room with colour
pushing back the shadows and the dun
dreary dullness in the days of dolour
a bright reminder of more happy times
living beauty grown in fertile soil
giving pleasure as the churchbell chimes
calling mourners all to gentle toil
remembering the layered past beyond
this circled sadness of the present instant
skipping stones across a summer pond
listening to the loon in purple distance
a momentary beauty still in life
bringing solace in the midst of strife

painting (c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2017 Tom Radcliffe

summer lattice mandala…

summer lattice mandala

I am quite pleased with how the richness of the colours came out. The orange comes forward and the magenta recedes enhancing the layered effect.

You may have noticed that the titles of the mandalas change after they have been painted. The names come to me as I am working and the effect of the colour on this one for me was to shift from the general feeling of meadow to a meadow in full summer. Guess I am looking forward through this rainy spring weather …or maybe looking back to one of those perfect childhood summer days.

As usual, Tom has seen things and expanded the image through his poetic response. This one is particularly magical! Love it – thanks Tom! 🙂

high summer fields at rest beneath the sun
dry weltering cicadas buzzing deep
curving pigtails flouncing round in fun
then hiding ‘neath the flowers, knapping sleep
in shards from solid summer afternoons
safe amidst the purple leaves and sedge
upon the sandy soil that hides the runes
writ in burrows down the lattice hedge
writ by rabbits wise in meadow ways
writ with knowledge sinking to the centre
stretching out to touch the turning days
opening the gates and letting enter
all the truth that cannot just be spoken
of the wheel that turns and won’t be broken

image (c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2017 Tom Radcliffe

meadow lattice mandala…

meadow lattice mandala

This piece started as an idea about butterflies and evolved into something else where the monarch butterfly is just clinging on to the periphery. The shifts in the scale of the lattice help create different possibilities of interpretation. There are subtle asymmetries in the pattern that I decided to embrace as the mandala developed.

Tom has written a sonnet for this mandala that somehow matches it and brings out nuances that I was not consciously aware of! He says, “Lots of abstract evocative stuff in this, like the image itself. I see shield-like elements to it, as well as a welcoming landscape, and more besides.”

Round the turning wheel’s asymmetry
curling curves protect the leaves of grass
Darkling centre from a bygone century
carved in ancient wood and pinned with brass
Missing moments, arms outstretched to bridge
improvised extensions far from home
Fingers reaching, touching, just a smidge
of butterfly is needed to be known
Starlight staggers, stuttering delights
dappling dark desires with softer shadows
Earthlight filters down through lattice lights
touching summer fields no longer fallow
Between the petals mysteries await
Ungentle Love disturbs the course of Fate

image (c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2017 Tom Radcliffe

peace rose mandala…

peace rose mandala

My grandfather used to grow peace roses. They are lovely colours ranging from cream to peach to almost orange with the petal edges darker. Their distinctive scent can take me right back to my childhood visiting that rose garden.

peace rose mandala detail

Even though many of the colours used are tone on tone, they bring out the various layers of the ink drawing that may have been difficult to see in the black and white version …and the playful ladybugs add another element of life to the composition.

Here is Tom’s wonderful new sonnet for the colour version of this mandala.

moments as the compass slowly turning
through the seconds, minutes, daylight hours
then beneath the midnight sky while burning
candles light the lattice of the flowers
with glowing fire until the dawn’s soft touch
ignites the luminosity within
signaling the day’s return and much
to do as all our future yesterdays begin
joyously amidst the flaming blossoms
while the busy ladybugs meander
through the leaves in search of treasures awesome:
some succulent surprise or fine philander
to pass the days in pleasuring bestowments
of joy upon each other while the moments

image (c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2017 Tom Radcliffe