Flow States

The astonishing recovery in Lebanon, and courage to respond positively to such trauma is evoked in the large painting ‘Blooming City’, as fresh spring flowers shoot over the ruins and Ottoman era facades, defying the concrete jungle which characterises much of contemporary Beirut. It’s a reworking of an older painting- layers of memory and time lie underneath the chaotic urban struggle. The series of paintings touches upon the places I have sought as safe havens in a time of instability- both the sublime beauty of Lebanon and the UK, from the flowing rivers Welland, Adonis and Qadisha, to the cold grey waters of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Wales to the deep blue Mediterranean. In an often unsettling time in the world, Mother Nature offers us solace and connection to Source.

‘At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity, Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards, Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.’ T.S. Eliot (Burnt Norton, The Four Quartets)