John Hicks Artist and Lecturer

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Sunlit Garden Study 1, Oil on Canvas 60 cm X 57 cm (May 2002)	Detail

Still  painting the garden, viewed directly through my studio window, but having to adapt to change as new foliage bursts out almost as I watch. This is brought about by what  the English euphemistically call "April showers": a series of one-minute monsoons which are immediately boiled dry under blazing sunshine. Daunted by all this meteorology I spent a few days making false starts before wiping my canvas clean and side-stepped the problem: painted the foreground rooftop as two reassuringly solid diagonals. This gave me the confidence to return to the foliage, where I selected  three strong shapes in thick, flat paint with my palette knife . Went  for a cup of tea.

On my return, was amazed to discover that each of these shapes had recorded an entirely different weather system: the foreground conifer blackened by a thundercloud; a distant pink blossoming tree softened by rain; a Honeysuckle turned neon yellow  by  the sun.

This painting was responding not only to the shape and colour of the foliage,  but  to the effects of the turbulent weather - which I painted quickly with a large brush, using greys based on black. What was even more exciting, when the brush touched  the still wet, coloured areas it picked up streaks which added faint reflections of the main shape.

I'll do more of these.

Comments or questions regarding this site? johnd.hicks@virgin.net
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