About my Feet the Sea

Photomontage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

The poem goes:

I stepped from Plank to Plank
A slow and cautious way
The Stars about my Head I felt
About my Feet the Sea.

This is the eleventh in the series inspired by Emily Dickinson's poetry.

I dreaded that first Robin so

But He is mastered, now,
I'm some accustomed to Him grown,
He hurts a little though -

Photomontage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

All her poems are poignant but I find this one particularly expressive.

The Soul selects her own Society

Photomontage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

Number nine in the Emily Dickinson series.

The Past is such a curious Creature

To look her in the Face
A Transport may receipt us
Or a Disgrace -

Photomontage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

Another piece inspired by the poems of Emily Dickinson.

Alain de Botton

The wisdom of the faiths belongs to all of mankind, even the most rational among us, and, throughout the liturgical year, deserves to be selectively reabsorbed. Religions are intermittently too useful, effective and intelligent to be abandoned to the religious alone.

Alain de Botton, 2011

A Vastness, as a Neighbour, came,

A Wisdom, without Face or Name,
A Peace, as Hemispheres at Home
And so the Night became.

Photomontage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

This is the seventh in the Emily Dickinson Series. The first line of this poem is: "The Crickets sang" if you want to Google it.

It is an honourable Thought (re-worked)

And makes One lift One's Hat
As One met sudden Gentlefolk
Upon a daily Street

Photomontage and Acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

My dad. He often wore a trilby hat and he used to raise it to any of my mother's friends we met when we were out walking the three of us. This is a continuation of the Emily Dickinson inspired series.

Since first posting this I have re-worked it quite a bit. I don't know why I post things when in my heart of hearts I know they are not finished. It's a bit like "the show must go on" kind of syndrome. Ridiculous. But that's blogging for you. Makes you paranoiac. Anyway, hope you like the improvements.

By the way, this is the end of that poem...

That We've immortal Place
Though Pyramids decay
And Kingdoms, like the Orchard
Flit Russetly away

Self portrait December 2011

Acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

This felt good to do. A more constructivist approach using palette knife - particularly in the early stages - and brush. It's a good way to get colour variation and also lets me feel as if I am "building" something. Even after so many layers I can still see the wood grain on the finished piece. I like that.

Presentiment (re-worked)

- is that long Shadow - on the Lawn -
Indicative that Suns go down -

Photomontage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

This was done on Sunday evening - after the sun had gone down incidentally. It was meant as a "starter" for this painting. And maybe it still is, but when I got to look at it this morning it seemed to be saying all I wanted it to say.

I went to Heaven (re-worked)

Twas a small town, lit by a Ruby, lathed in down..

Photomontage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

This was the hardest so far. ED's idea of heaven was not a cloudy, fluffy, insubstantial place. My grandmother (pictured) would be delighted to discover that heaven was a small town. She was not a country girl nor was she a city girl. She was always a small town girl. I like that metaphor very much.

Since first posting this I have re-worked it, getting rid of the large darker shape in the foreground.

I'll tell you how the sun rose. (re-worked)

a ribbon at a time -

Photo montage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

This is the third in the Em and I series which I am concentrating on at the moment.

How happy is the little stone (re-worked)

Photo montage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

This is the second in the 'Em and I' series (Emily Dickinson inspired). I had originally painted this with quite a bleak and very abstract background. I worked on it for some time yesterday and this emerged which is decidedly sunnier. As I (think) I was working intuitively, then so be it. The titles of these paintings are the first lines of some of my favourite ED poems.

That Love is all there is

Photo montage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

I'm intending this to be the first of a series of work inspired by the poems of Emily Dickinson. She is one of my favourite American poets. Her life and her work resonate with me and it felt so right to do this, as though many of the important decisions around a painting were being taken care of quite naturally.

Maggie Smith look-alike

Acrylic on wood panel 6" x 8"