sunlit posies
A joyful little painting – I’m happy with the way the contrast between light and dark really makes the flowers pop!
Here is Tom’s poem. He says he sees this painting as a metaphor for some beautiful, elegant woman basking on a yacht! 🙂
Overflowing blossom
scarf tied ’round round throat
basking in the sunshine
living life afloat!
image (c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2017 TJ Radcliffe
moonlit grove mandala
All colours are on the blue side of the spectrum to give the feeling of a moonlit evening.
As with other tree mandalas I have done, the trees are interconnected with a pattern of Celtic knots and an eye motif is integrated into the design which speaks to a kind of awareness. I started thinking about trees this way last year after reading the book “The Hidden Life of Trees” by Peter Wohlleben.
quadrant – with rabbit
And here’s a brand new poem from Tom responding to the painted version of this mandala …words that enhance and fulfill the image.
Trees might speak in cold moonlight
rumours swirling through the leaves
contemplating wrong and right
dreaming of a day to seize.
Crescent moon by Earthlight fulled
rules the zenith, riding high.
Apples weighted by the pull
toward the centre. Whispers, sighs
pass from bough to branch to root
down to where the Earth abides.
Watchful rabbit, owl’s hoot
safely distant on the tide
of silver shining in the night
turning darkness fair and bright.
image (c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) TJ Radcliffe
embracing grove mandala
A new mandala! Back to one of my favourite themes …trees! This time I used a division of ten for the first time – usually it’s eight or twelve. To me, it has an innocent Garden of Eden feeling – before the bite.
embracing grove mandala – detail
A apple waits in the centre of each tree…
Tom’s sonnet inspired by the image takes on a medieval feeling.
deep within the beating heart of trees
open spaces open invitation
to a knight who rides the land so free
and a maid of bold clear-eyed temptation
spreading limbs and roots within the grove
leafy shadows dapple dance and quaver
as a gust sweeps through the central trove
leaving them in silence while they savor
gasping moments breathing in the sound
hearing sights and tasting touch beside
each other lying on the welcome ground
the grass beneath a slowly rising tide
sunlight paints their naked innocence
hearts and minds in pure coincidence
image (c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2017 Tom Radcliffe
illuminating mask mandala
Well, this rendering was a bit experimental but in the end I think it worked. For one thing, usually I pick a point outside of the circle as the light source but this time, the light radiates from the centre. It gives the whole a sort of camp-fire-lit feeling which I like a lot. At the same time, it is pretty strange and eerie!
Tom caught the feeling and brought a deep poetic truth to it. Here is his amazing poem for this mandala.
We are your faces, lit by firelight   Finely tuned to captivate emotion   Gazing inward, turning back to night   Circling the flame's eternal motion We are your faces, waiting for a time   When you will wear us out in light of day   Speaking through us, trying to be kind   Or angry, sad, bemused... some other way We are your faces, we know who you are   When you take us off as darkness falls   Above the lighted circle distant stars   Wheel across the sky at curfew's call. We are your faces, masking you from pain We are your faces, speaking in your name
image (c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2017 Tom Radcliffe
blossom, branch and sky
This one was experimental in terms of subject and composition. Starting from a photograph (thanks again Claire!) I manipulated the placement and angles and edited the elements down to what I thought best expressed the feeling I was trying to convey. Happy with that aspect! While the photo was showing blossoms in Taiwan, the blossoming cherry trees here in Vancouver have been a wonderful part of my introduction to living here.
And here is Tom’s sonnet for the painting. Too bad the painting doesn’t have the scent of the actual blossoms – but after reading the poem you’ll think it does! 😉
in the core of springtime dwells the flower
bud upon the long enleafened branch
waiting for the bee to grace her bower
releasing pollen’s fecund avalanche
into the cool clear dewy air of morning
to fall through quiet, wafting on the breeze
life itself on zephyrs now aborning
carrying sweet scents from flowered trees
down the city streets and neighbourhoods
across the boulevards and avenues
crying out the joy of cherrywoods
as just the thing to heal a life askew
Early morning joggers pause and breathe
the gift of springtime from the morning trees
image (c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2017 Tom Radcliffe
English Bay
We were walking along the shore in Kitsilano a week or so ago and were treated to a spectacular sky with the sun starting to set and gaps in the clouds allowing light to stream through. I didn’t take a picture at that time but the image stuck in my head so that when I went back more recently I took some photos with the idea of combining photos and memory into a painting. As a result this small (6″x6″) painting is a somewhat imaginary landscape which is English Bay but not from an exact viewpoint. I plan to return to this – there are so many ways it could be painted!
Tom wrote a lovely poem for this painting which catches the mood and essence of the piece in just a few words.
Sky of promise
Touching quiet sea
Held within the ragged arms of land
Blazing moments
Reaching out to me
Falling from the air into my hand
image (c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2017 Tom Radcliffe
expressive mask mandala
Well, this has to be one of the stranger mandalas I have done so far! It started with an idea about six faces integrated and separated by the Celtic knots. The last thing to be added were the six small faces. I am not sure what they represent – one’s conscience? ancestors? descendants? imps? There may be no single meaning to the various faces and expressions so the viewer can overlay their own meaning.
Here’s Tom’s poetic take on it which took a darker, allegorical turn.
Subtleties of secular expression
each in opposition to the other
balancing the soul’s intense progression
’round the stations of my truest lover:
steady, saddened, joyous, shocked, concerned.
contemplative of her soul’s possession
of a body ruffed by wreathen ferns
wondering at time’s unchecked succession.
Anger fading to annoyance then
acceptance, understanding, contemplation,
wryly knowing all that one may ken
of the centre’s subtle conflagration.
The mystery of mysteries remains
Yet still we stand, defending life’s domain.
image (c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2017 Tom Radcliffe
