• Tree (Jan-March 2012)
Requires expensive box frame to finish! (Piece measures 76x57cm)
Plane tree seeds collected from my immediate environment were painted blue to create a 3D mystery tree based on the willow pattern.
David Richard Quinter, in his book Willow!, searches for the origins of this tree.
"There are a half-dozen, maybe seven, different trees in the standard Willow Pattern; dominating them all and holding sway over the entire scene is that leafless, bulbous, grotesquely laden growth alleged by some to be an apple tree...
"An apple tree? Towering over a three-storied mansion? In full fruit of late summer while its neighbour, the weeping willow, is shown with springtime catkins? We know that the Willow Pattern is derived from a clutch of Chinoiserie elements, so (you ask) how does an apple tree...take so commanding a role where it is most foreign?
"A pomegranate, perhaps, would make more sense. In China, the pomegranate's blossom is one of 12 flowering symbols, its mass of seeds representing fertility, abundant posterity...
"An interesting candidate is the persimmon, native to China and Japan, where it is named kaki. Once known in the west as 'date plum', the Chinese persimmon can grow to a height of 80 feet with individual fruit weighing a pound. The persimmon...is regarded as an emblem of joy...used as a popular design on bowls and dishes...
"How about the orange, then? ...The 'golden apples' of the ancient Greeks probably reached Europe from India. Renaissance artists included them in religious paintings and the orange became associated with the Virgin. By the 18th century, numerous German princes and aristocrats were growing orange trees all over the warmer parts of Europe...In Tudor times, oranges were planted in Britain...So, like the weeping willow tree which had also found a new home on the banks of the River Thames at Twickenham, oranges, too, were part of England's dawning sense of exotic internationalism...
"There is one more claimant: the peach tree...In China, the peach tree for centuries has denoted long life and happy marriage, also the qualities of virtue, promise, and the grace of a young bride...Apple, pomegranate, persimmon, orange, peach – apportion them where you will!"
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| Persimmon tree |
• Teapot (Jan-March 2012)
During the cold months I took up papier mache for the first time (well, since primary school), using a classic shaped real teapot to model from. The handle, spout and lid presented a bit of a challenge.
Am now covering it with rather expensive White Pearl teaballs – so the tea will be on the outside rather than inside...
• Willow Borders...Taking a line for a walk (drawing with edges) (Oct 2011-March 2012)
Joining random border edges from a vast collection of Willow shards salvaged from various foreshores, the problem remains of how to join up the these sections to create a much larger sculptural piece.
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