Selphi as St Jerome.

I was always fascinated by Leonardo’s anatomical drawings, especially of the neck and shoulder region.

I was aware of his unfinished St Jerome, which was obviously drawn by him but the paint probably added or retouched by an apprentice, or some such subsequent gaucherie.

Recently I caught a glimpse of myself in the bathroom mirror with a patch of light catching the neck and shoulder anatomy…rather like the Leonardo St Jerome and I hastened to capture it on my mobile.

And so began this painting.

The multicoloured light must have come from fresh memories of Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia on a sunny morning.

I found it more interesting to construe and concoct the sub-cutaneous structure as architectural or engineering rather than actual human sinews and muscles…and why did I spell it Selphi? Well works of art should be more highbrow than snapshots…my mother told me.

Courtesans.

(The original is less saturated, more like this):

Its always exciting to have visitors to Big Bush. Sometimes I do a painting with real or imaginary people or objects doing something in Big Bush.

The juxtapostion is just the beginning.

Something always begins to flow or brew, over which I willingly lose control.

Its intriguing how many points of contact happen between seemingly random juxtapositions. Thats like life isn’t it?.

OK, so I was reading a couple of books about ukiyo-e Japanese woodblock prints after having bought a couple of prints from Julian. Better educate myself a bit.

These delightful young ladies with their discreet, mysterious, genteel vocations (preoccupations? pastimes?) accompanied by attendants and devotees, moving about their floating world with such inscrutable buoyancy… did such creatures really exist? Were they spirits? Did they inhabit bodies?What on earth would it be like to have a few in Big Bush, to talk to and entertain? Would they find something interesting to play with?

Big Bush Wet Winter.

Like the name says, I was trying to recall walking slowly around in Big Bush during steady winter rain.

All objects covered with a film of water which is reflecting the available light from the clouds; a warm and cool grey. And drips hanging off everything, and drops in the air…I dunno, it looks pretty wet to me…

Bhutanitis Impact.

In pursuance of my lifelong preoccupation with butterflies I have accumulated many books and websites on the subject.

Recently I became fascinated with a genus of “swallowtail” butterflies called Bhutanitis. They are to be found (if one is very lucky and well guided,) in Bhutan to Burma, at moderate to high elevations. So I, um, impacted one (or two?) into Big Bush.

(In my imagination that is. I don’t want visits from Customs and Quarantine… nor from Immigration regarding the Ladies from Japan.)