Monthly Archives: December 2017

Time and Space

Time and Space
Coloured pencils and oil pastels
280 x 390 mm
December 2017

  • Here  – an erect rose
  • There – bones of the exoskeleton encasing Centre Georges Pompidou
  • Beyond – walls, roofs, spires (Notre Dame) and air

Layers of time.  Forms in space.

Tall Poppy

“Tall Poppy”
a drawing from the Jardin des Plantes de Paris.
22 x 21 cm. December 2017

It isn’t always a bad thing to be a tall poppy, especially when you are festooned in red-pink petals and surrounded by a population of green shrubs.  Who would dare accuse you of rising beyond your station?   You smile and wave in the breeze – oblivious to all.

When I visited the Jardin des Plantes de Paris in October 2016 the summer festival of flowers was over.  A few late bloomers stood in defiance – soon to be hacked away by gardeners clearing the beds for winter hibernation.  Such is the lot of a tall poppy;  destined to be cut down.  C’est la vie.