Bluebell wood

Revenge by Bluebell Wood

This painting of a bluebell wood is in some respects a work of revenge. I put a few works into a charity exhibition in Winchester earlier in the year. I sold nothing. When I went to pick up my work I saw a painting of a bluebell wood that had sold for £1,000. it was a muddy mess, and I swore to paint a better one.

Revenge isn’t the best motivation for painting. I do my best to inhabit my paintings, to bring something to them that I feel, to invest them with qualities of soul – otherwise, I might as well give up. So in this painting, I considered the figure of the Greek god Pan. Malevolent to some, lusty and inappropriate, hidden but suddenly all too terrifyingly visible, Pan brings Panic – but also music, eroticism, Spring, and every bluebell wood. I was tempted to paint some broken pan-pipes or a hint of hairy goat leg behind a tree but happily resisted the urge.

A Bluebell wood isn’t blue

As for bluebells, their most important characteristic is that they aren’t blue but rather violet-blue, and the glossy petals catch the light, so at a distance, there is a spectrum of colour. Bluebells contrast marvellously with the acid green of young beech trees.

This work took, on and off, two months to paint. The price is a fraction of the value.

If you like flowers, you might like this cistus or this painting of daylilies.