October 05, 2023

The making of "Life Journey Leaf"

I believe that everything in nature offers a lesson, a sign or a symbol.

This belief is something I return to again and again in my painting. A leaf, much like our life, is filled with cycles and seasons. Seasons of growth and expansion, and seasons of turning inwards and letting go. There are five seasons in Chinese Traditional Medicine, the fifth season being Late Summer. It’s sometimes referred to as an “Indian Summer” in the west. Late Summer occurs between the end of August and month of September. I always resonated with this concept, particularly being Irish, because usually we get really great weather in September. It often feels like a second summer ~ a little burst of sunshine before we enter into Autumn. These paintings were created during this transitional season. They are a celebration of that slow turning of the wheel.

There is a type of beauty that lies modestly beneath the surface of things that inspires me to create. A single, perfect fallen leaf at my studio doorstep ignited this body of work.

Within this five-stemmed leaf, I saw not only a symbol of the five seasons, but also a symbol of our life journey and the many cycles that take place in our lives. I saw in it, something of the divine, something of a guide.

These paintings are the result of contemplation, of introspection, and the willingness to be receptive to nature's guidance in my creative process.

I began this body of work by making expressive marks on the paper in response to my automatic drawings I made in nature. The surface of the paper was then built up by layers of paint and energetic and spontaneous mark making. In this way I wanted to capture the history and many cycles our lives go through.

Each leaf was then painted over in a delicate, deliberate and meditative manner with each of the five seasonal colours represented within the leaf. The balance between both these approaches echoes and invites us to embrace the cycles of chaos and calm in our own life journeys.

My hope is that these paintings offer you the viewer, a way to pray with nature in a new way, to love it, and to see in it, a positive symbol for your own life journey.

“A perfect fallen leaf

On my studio doorstep

Thank you Art Angels”