Untitled Document

There is one thing about all people that makes us equal; we are born and will die - in between this time the Seasons circulate through. How we participate in this passing of time is the story of our individual private autobiography.

Within each season there is a cycle itself, a stength to be tapped into and used. In each season there is life and death. Happiness and sadness. Black and white.

These Four Seasons Puzzle Paintings are my own autobiography. Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn have always been dear to me and the first painting of a poppy (summer) that I still have was made in primary school. The main portion of music and poems that influenced them was studied at secondary school.

They were an integral part of each painting. The paintings belong together, like a ring, a never-ending circle.

In England, where I was born, the Christian religious calendar dictates this circle for me. Each painting is full of symbolism, a very old and tried way to tell a story.

Summer

In summer the heat of the sun brings its work to its fullness. In the bottom of the Puzzle Painting the fully opened poppy surrenders to the sun. The rest of the cycle is next to it. The spring poppy in bud, then the beginnings of the petals unfurling, and the winter poppy as a seed pod, as all parts of its cycle belong to each other for it to perpetuate. This strength then sweeps into the middle right of the painting of a collectible field of poppies amongst the ripening wheat. A generation of people swaying in time to the same wind that wafts over the ripening wheat. Belonging, and yet not, they die; turn to seeds, before the wheat is harvested. This is overshadowed on the left hand side, the thorns of the barbed wire within the field are the blackness of this world: death, poverty, ignorance. It is there, someone in the world is suffering. The two horizons at the top of the Puzzle Painting are the perpetuation of a new day, rebirth, our choice to tap into the unlimited possibilities that a new day can bring.

In England, on November 11th, there is a day of Remembrance of the soldiers who died in the 1st World War in Flanders. A poppy can be purchased for this day; I have worn a poppy on Poppy Day.

Autumn

In Autumn the vivid interwoven colours of this season vie with each other for which will be the most eyecatching. This begins in the Puzzle Painting from the top right hand side running downward, where with its last fling of colourful life, it prepares itself to die and sleep over the cold, and to wait silently. Across to the left of the Puzzle where these colours then are sucked out and lost to the flowing water. The leaves lose their flesh and turn into the bare empty field. This is also the way out of the painting and into the next.

Winter

In Winter there is the Christmas tree - a strong sturdy English oak (instead of the Victorian use of a fir tree) the repeated shape on the tree to resemble it being decorated. It is split nearly into two to show the old and new Year. It has a bench under it to invite you to rest and take part in the Christmas night. The stable where Christ was born being across the ploughed field. As in each Puzzle Painting, there is a road way to walk along through the season. Here, because of the deep snow, there are sign posts to mark the edge of the road added to help to stop you drifting off into the freezing deep snow.

Spring

In spring the earth throws off its sleep, and bursts into new life. Two dragonflies on a King Cup crown form a heart shape whilst mating, the symbol for love itself. The beginning of the water way through this season has its origin in a spring, without water all seasons would be arid. Its quest is to flow towards the ocean, adding capacity of itself as it travels. It will become an old and sluggish river by the time it reaches the end of its journey, but it has gathered the knowledge of its life. The newly hatched dragonfly dries its wings on a reed. It forms a cross; Easter is in this season. Christ dying on the cross (Good Friday). The wind mill, like a man, stands and watches, whilst all around the new green reborn foliage (Easter Sunday) dances to the fresh spring breezes.

Thus is the cycle complete.

All of this is nothing new, it's as old as time itself.