Clearing Sky

'Clearing sky' oil on linen 30 x 40 cm.

'There is a society where
none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music,
in its roar.

Lord Byron 1788 - 1824

The quiet and grey days of January make one inclined to stay indoors and keep warm. The studio becomes a place where I can gaze out of the window and watch the birds soaring up into the wild sky, notice the garden birds searching for food and even playing in the trees especially the chattering sparrows. It seems as if time is standing still, so quiet are the days, but it is a good time, a time to be still and to simply be, to understand that each season has times to be busy and outside and times to be quiet and more contemplative.

Wishing you all happy painting days this January.

Towards the Hebrides

Hebrides

Staffa is an organ
Thrown overboard by giants long ago.

Jura is a beast with its head down, sleeping,
Its back volcanic, its winds eroded.

Tiree is a gust of fields and houses
Low in the water on the world's rim.

Lewis is a congregation of juddled srmons
Battened-down hatches in a mist of whisky.

Eigg is one milk tooth biting the sky
Searching thirstily among sagging clouds.

by Kenneth C Steven.

Poetry inspires my paintings. I have recently come across the works of Kenneth C Steven he captures the beauty of the Hebrides in his writing. My painting was inspired by the wetlands of Lewis and is titled 'Towards the Hebrides' oil on canvas 60 x 60 cm.