as well as drawing in the woods, i've also been sketching some clouds... these are the better ones, i think...
all of which seems a little odd, as they bear no relation to my current series of paintings, [which i am calling farmscapes, until a better title comes to mind...] anyhow, this led me to research the origin of the word farm, which as a verb has only been in use since the 19th century... the noun farm derives from the Latin firma meaning 'fixed payment' (from the Latin firmare) denoting a lease of land, later specific to agriculture... firmare also leads to the word firmament, a tangible expression of the skies or heavens above...
[a farmscape diptych in progress]...
[detail of farmscapes... in progress]the farmscapes are meant to be cool, sparse paintings, hinting at enclosure, mechanisation, rural industral landscapes, reducing the pattern and structure of agricultural land and its outbuildings to an economic geometry...i have been too slow in resolving these farmscapes paintings, as at heart i want all ten of them to be viewed together as one large composite piece of work, but i lack the space to work on them consistently and effectively... so the opportunity to sketch outdoors has taken me down another rural track of ideas, the elements of wood, sky, water ... somewhere, somehow leading back to thoughts of zen...