IMPRESSIONS OF EDEN

The first garden that we know of was Eden, a place of great beauty and innocence, and a special connection with our Creator.

- Creativity in planting, and nurturing the growth of a garden

- The excitement and wonder in the miracle of plant life

- Parallel to the creative process of printmaking

- Therapeutic processes of both

- Spiritual inspiration necessary for both

In the beginning there was a garden. It was a special place of beauty, peace, harmony and a personal relationship between the mortal and the divine. Long ago we lost that place and have been trying ever since to get it back. Planting and cultivating my own garden often provides me with these feelings and have inspired me to express them through my artwork.

My current theme in my printmaking is my garden and the flowers that appear in it. I am always in awe of the whole process of growth, blossoming, seeding, death and regeneration that happen daily in a garden and so feel a connection with Creativity on a grand scale. My prints are my own attempt at creativity on a much more humble scale. I try to recreate some of the amazing colours, textures, light and shadow as I find them at different times of day and season, and yet these colours are my own interpretations of what I see and feel when I am caring for my garden. The flowers are very close and personal, larger than life, a sort of bee’s eye point of view in which I am trying to convey to the viewer my total involvement in a particular setting.

The flowers in my prints are only those that I have planted and nurtured myself because it is a similar feeling for me to grow a garden and to make an etching. Both start with an idea, need to be planned and developed with attention to colour, texture, size, composition and light. Some of my prints are of flowers appearing out of deep shadows because much of my garden is shade and I am always amazed at how some plants thrive with little light and seem to come alive in the sunshine. There is also a great sense of surprise when plants come up in unexpected places and colours which can be better thanthe plan. This too, as any printmaker will verify, is one of the delights of etching: the rush, the excitement of pulling a good proof always carries with it an element of surprise. I can never get this feeling in another art medium, but often do when a bud opens overnight into another small but important miracle. I am forever grateful for both of these gifts and hope that my viewers will share my joy.