Kingsmead III

When I lived on a small new housing development in Canterbury, I was often under great stress from my corporate day job and my head would be filled with the low-level hum of the usual worries about life, money, and that feeling I suspect a lot of us have in our thirties; of having worked so hard for nearly twenty years and yet still finding myself struggling financially, living in a tiny space and having not quite found my place in the world.

During these times I would frequently walk around the corner to the small green spaces to escape into nature, which colonised any corner it could find in the urban landscape. This painting depicts a tiny part of the wildflower "meadow" which hugged the edges of the playing field towards the back of the housing estate. From late Spring all the way through to Autumn, these small wild areas were a tapestry of different textures, forms and colours all jostling for position. This made it a haven for invertebrates, birds and small mammals, which occasionally even attracted birds of prey. For years, this tiny wild space helped me to "tune-out" the glorious-yet-horrific suburban noise of heavy traffic, teenagers playing tinny music through their phones and shouting at passers-by, dogs barking and children screaming on the swings. It also helped me to tune-out the unpleasant noises in my own head.

For this composition I deliberately focused in on just the tiny meadowed area, only just cropping out the modern houses immediately beyond, the pathways full of dog-walkers and joggers to either side and the bland playing field just behind. This reflects the sense of escape the meadow gave me in those troubled times: by extending the carpet of grasses and wildflowers beyond and around the edges of the frame, this gives the impression that the meadow could be a much larger wild field anywhere in England, or Europe or even a vast prairie way out in the Americas...

In this way the composition transports the viewer to wild, calm spaces in the same way the subject transported me whenever I'd go walking, if only for a few minutes.

I used impasto techniques and a variety of grained acrylic mediums to build up layers of paint to recreate the bristling textures of the dry grasses and rattling seedheads overlain with soft fresh growth and delicate wild flowers.

This painting has been treated with an acrylic matt varnish to protect the surface and reduce shine. It comes ready to hang with metal eyelets and cord. It includes a certificate of authenticity made from an abstract which I created to use up the excess paints when I finished the final sitting. Creating certificates this way helps me to reduce waste and protect the environment.