Circling; work in progress
For a while now I have produced a series of paintings with a heart motif; The Space Between. Sometimes foxes, sometimes cats, and the more interesting one that grew from a line in a Pat Rothfuss novel, The Name of the Wind, where the leading character Kvothe, has one of those rare flashes of heightening of awareness and understands the space between the fox and the hare. And I have watched as this motif appears in other places, sometimes with a nod of reference to myself, sometimes not at all, and sometimes when someone has asked if I mind them working on the theme.
I don’t own this theme. It’s not copyrighted to me. But the only other place I saw it before I began to play with it was in images of swans, taken by photographers. That curve of the neck that traps the shape of a heart.
It was when the fox and hare began to be ‘copied’ that I bristled a little and decided that the best way to take it back into ownership was to play with it again. The first image was painted for Art in Action, 2012. It was a musing, on the nature of love, relationships. It was the first picture I painted using a sable brush, a very special, rather old one that had belonged to Robin’s father.
Now, three years on, I began again. One evening while working on the painting, out for the evening meeting friends, driving home I saw the russet flash of fox dash swift across the road, heading for the beach where the tide was dropping, searching for food.
A few more years of painting have improved my understanding of the shape of a hare, the shape of a fox, the space between, balance, colour, line, weight of water to pigment. Maybe.
Interesting for me to see the work in progress, the layering, the change as the white becomes gold ( and part of me really likes the half finished version, that moment in time caught on an iPhone, so much more).
It’s resting now, the painting, propped up in my studio for a few days while I decide if it’s done, and I am glad to see that my work has developed over the years. While working on this piece which remains a meditation on relationships more paintings sprang to the mind’s eye, and some were remembered that have lain dormant for a while, waiting for the time when they move onto paper. Already I know I will come back to this one again.
Next I am working on two things, while I wait for one publisher to return to me with covers, lettering, another with edits. Again a reworking. This time of a symbol that I scarcely saw before i began painting it, but which wanders through history and almost every world religion. It is a symbol of regeneration, rebirth, rewinding, an endless chase, which is a mediation again on art. An endless chase to capture something. Now there are many artists working again with this symbol. Some tread a little hard on my toes now and again. Most make it their own. I have painted it a few times over the years.
For now it sits on my desk and I circle around it. Beside me is a beautiful book of Pisanello’s paintings and drawings, including his hare. In front of me is Durer’s hare on a book by Anna Wigley.
And in my head a kingfisher is flashing, swift dart of a small bird, turquoise bright, beautiful.
I sort of forgot to breathe a bit there…. breathtaking in its truest sense.
it is such a beautiful painting, I have painted many foxes and one I painted with a chickadee I discovered on Pinterest,, I didn’t put it there, it was copied, and when I clicked on it it took me to the site they were selling it,
I am just a painter, I don’t sell my work, , not now, I hadd just started selling a bit when I fell from quite a height onto a rocky shore,
I have lost my eye sight from a brain injury now to the point that painting is becoming a challenge, it hurt me to see someone else benefiting from my work, but I will finally get to my point before I bore you further,
my husband told me to be proud someone thought enough of my work to copy it, I suppose he is right,, you will always be the one that created the original no one can take that,
thank you for sharing your beautiful work, I have always loved and admired your work, you were and still am my inspiration, I paint now in my dreams,
So beautiful! You have an amazing talent.
I love to see them getting “born” from thin pencils stripes
to saturated colours and character in the end 😉
Wow! Your hares are lovely, lovely, lovely! What a pro you are.
I fell in love with Tell me a Dragon, which led me to your other books, and then to your blog page. Your art work is so beautiful and touches me so deep inside on a raw, emotional level. The fox and hare piece is so beautiful and has such positive energy – I feel you always manage to capture the spirit of the animals you create as well as their form in your art. Amazing!
I love that you use folklore and History in creating your paintings. The years, yet, a lifetime of study… No one can copy that. We can only stand back and, in awe, admire from afar…
Brilliant pictures and words from the heart!
It’s a difficult one isn’t it. The pictures above are created from your imagination and your amazing skill as an Artist, yet out there some people use it as their own. They only need to change it just slightly and it becomes theirs with little effort.
It just isn’t right but what can anyone do.
I love the pictures shown here and have watched the video clip of the gold leaf being applied to the Hares lots of times because its so fascinating.
I haven’t watched THEIRS!
I have loved your work for many years and can appreciate the problem when dealing with what I’ll call for the sake of argument ‘common themes’. I paint and also work in crochet and needlefelt, and have found there is a growing problem when there are only so many simple forms and positions of a subject. It’s often difficult to know where convergent or independent evolution takes over from outright plagiarism, or even whether one has oneself been influenced, or where genuine development of a theme takes place. Where posts are widely shared this becomes even more difficult – there is always a nagging feeling that someone somewhere has already copyrighted something one genuinely believes to be one’s own original idea, especially if they have access to a wider means of communication. I can recall the case of a potter many years back whose work was pirated by a large company, to the extent that she was perceived as the copyist by the public! This is a problem that sadly won’t go away.
I don’t think it is difficult. Most of the time the blatant exploitation of other people’s images and ideas is easy to spot and it is so unprofessional for people who work in the visual arts not to ‘remember’ having seen an image before and not to credit influence. Now and again ideas are in the zeitgeist. But that is rare. There is a fine example of plagiarism going on at the moment with a friend of mine, Catherine Hyde, finding her work being reproduced but in a shallow way. It’s not flattering.
It is flattering for me to see how the theme has been taken and used, for the Space Between, but now and again it would be good to be credited with influence.
I love my “space between”, every day, I love it every single day xxx
In 2015 I had breast cancer and what was amazing was that finally I had the time to paint and draw again
During my treatment I lost my hair and I couldn’t stop painting them, Hares……
I saw your golden hare book on Pinterest and got copy from the library.
I couldn’t get a copy all sold out!
It was so enchanting, your work is so beautiful and so fluid.
I wanted to paint like you and be as wonderful as you.
I am still love drawing and painting my hares, I paint for myself for pleasure and I love them , they re so healing.
I am all better now and hope you know what an inspiration you are!
Many Thanks
Lisa Johnson.
Thank you. The book is back in print now. Hope you can find a copy.