down among the wild flowers

This painting is another in my Land series which I have been posting up here from time to time.

I started it early in the summer 2010, but only finished it earlier this year. It came from spending many visits sitting in amongst the bluebells & greater stitchworts that grow in a bank created by the remains of an iron age hill fort on this land. The weather was kind at that stage of 2010, and I sat out there many times drawing in a little sketchbook - not directly on the canvas that time. The sketchbook then inspired the little drawings drawn onto the flower shapes in the painting. During my series of visits out there the flowers began going over, becoming seed heads, & the next plants in nature's cycle were thrusting up past them - grasses, sorrells & the bracken which eventually dominates that area for the rest of the summer.

I wanted to convey the feeling of the layers of teeming life & colour there being drawn up from the earth by the sun. At that point it was a place to go & rest & recharge my batteries, which I was very grateful for. Looking at it now brings back the sense of that place.

TAKE CARE OF THE LITTLE ONES..

I took these photos on my mobile on a recent holiday with my partner on the beautiful Lleyn peninsular in North Wales. We were sitting at the back of the beach on our 1st afternoon there, & looking around me I saw so many little feathers, & I felt a gut need to do something in response..

So I found myself gathering some & standing them in the sand, totally engrossed in following my intuition..

As this little place took shape, I kept hearing in my head " TAKE CARE OF THE LITTLE ONES " .

As I finished it, putting the seaweed round the edge to mark the boundary of this little place, I understood that it was a little shrine. A little marker , tucked up at the back of the beach, just below high tide mark ; a message for me, a message for anyone who might explore there too in the next hours while the sea crept its way back up the long sands. The tide was big that day, there was plenty of time.

And so I share it with you - TAKE CARE OF THE LITTLE ONES - whoever they are around you today. Little people, little plants, little trees, little crawling, walking, climbing, flying ones, small or young or old ones, take that extra moment to take care. Let them touch your heart & teach you, as these little feathers did me.

And I thank all the Spirits who love us, who are just waiting to take care of us, each time we ask for their help.