Summer Garden Painting

My work is profoundly influenced by my love of the natural world and the wonder of knowing that we and everything in the natural world are made from the same component parts as the stars. In fact it can be said that ancient star particles are within each and every one of us and all living (and inert) things. Professor Brian Cox said, “we are the Cosmos made conscious” This has had a huge impact on how I view myself and my place in the world and beyond. If you should cut open an apple or an orange you will see within a perfect star pattern. Our world is full of pattern and full of colour – look at the centre of a flower and notice how the petals grow and there you will find a pattern, look at a tree trunk or a snail’s shell, the feathers on a bird, and there you will find patterns wrapped in colour. For me pattern brings a harmony and balance and it has long been something that I love to explore, play with and use, sometimes in an abstract way and sometimes through magical realism, to portray through colour, shape and design, our lived reality. I love the play of light through trees and twilight is probably my favourite time in the garden. The use and play of light has always been the mark of our truly great artists. All these things have influenced my work because they have influenced me and as Aristotle said: “The aim of art is not to represent the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance” And finally the great Paul Cezanne: “A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art” I strive to turn those words into paintings. Terri Bailey.