A painting of a bee in a country allotment

A bee in a country allotment

This painting was exhbited at The New English Art Club’s (NEAC) Annual Open Exhibition 2022

When the lockdowns happened, I decided to embark on a large project based in my home village of Pilton, Somerset. I mused upon a few ideas,  finally settling on the village allotment.

Over the years I have painted many allotments, some real locations though many manufactured from a collection of sketches and ideas.

With the Pilton allotment I had already drawn in and painted it several times, so I was familiar with the landscape.

My approach to painting the allotment

Like all my work, it wouldn’t be a traditional, accurate depiction as most artists do but an idea of the allotment. As I say in my ‘About me’ section:
“Accurate perspective however is all well and good, although in creative terms it can only deliver so much. I tend to adjust and push things about until it feels right. If that means geometric perspective is abandoned, then that’s fine. It’s all about the overall impression.”

Essentially, I take a medieval and Early Modern approach to creating a painting. If a part is interesting to me then make it bigger. If it is not interesting to me, then make it smaller or just leave it out completely.

I will also take liberties with time, seasons, plants and crops – here you will see spring Dandelions in with Autumn Pumpkins.

I do this because when we think of an allotment or garden our minds leap to the parts that interest us the most so, Roses will be right next to Snowdrops. In essence we condense time in our minds. In response I condense time in my paintings. I also took the opportunity to condence scale too. I took in a whole landscape and added a bee in amongst it all. It may take a while to spot. This inspired the title ‘A bee in a country allotment’.

I really enjoyed painting our allotment and the project helped me keep a mite saner throughout the lockdowns and ever-changing regulations.