How the egg became a bowl...

As my 'egg' paintings evolve my brain is beginning to awaken. Working this past week on the painting above with radio 4 gently gently chatting away in the background, a thought came to me... In recent years most of my work has been about vessels and women.. Using boats, bowls, eggs (even the odd pear) as a metaphor for rescue and keeping things (people) safe. 

(Natural pigments on recycled wood)

So, why did I change the largest egg into a bowl?  

The painting had been it in the studio for weeks.  It kept peeking out from behind other work... teasing me, niggling me... Making me think! ....What's that all about?

I kept looking at the painting (below), propped it up around the house, took it out into the garden. Wondering why it wasn't working for me. 

I get up really early, just after 5am,  I love that time of the morning it's still quite dark here in Cornwall. I open the back door and listen, the birds are just waking, the seagulls are already up and squawking.. Sometimes I can smell the ocean. Sometimes I can hear the fog horns.. A magical place..

Kettle on, tea made.  As I turned to go into the dining room I caught sight of a very simple hand thrown bowl sitting on the side with the sour dough proving.. It's a beautiful bowl, red earthenware with a creamy glaze inside, around 100 years old. A dough bowl.. A vessel, keeping my bread dough safe. Just like an egg keeping it's contents safe... 

So that is how the largest egg became a bowl.. The pear is another story...

..'An empty bowl is a symbol of going on a pilgrimage, a sacred journey, open to the gifts of life. A bowl is a powerful symbol of nourishment, emptied and refilled over and over throughout life'..

Working with with natural pigments and gesso has makes my brain ache at times it's even caused me to think things through.. Not like me at all.. Thinking??? What's all that about... But, it is such a beautiful medium, the colours are gentle, it has a soft matt finish and best of all the process is a pleasure....