Footfalls

 

 

“Footfalls echo in the memory

Down the passage which we did not take

Towards the door we never opened

Into the rose-garden.

My words echo

Thus, in your mind."

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                                                         T.S.Eliot, “Burnt Norton”

 

 

This story starts with a doorway which nearly didn’t happen. A little while back I painted a red chaise-longue in front of a large sea view. All went well until I started painting the wallpaper. Putting it in perspective was proving very difficult and frustrating. The answer came to me on a dog walk. If I knocked a hole through the offending wall then problem solved - less wallpaper. And in time a seed of an idea was planted. An open door leading to the next room invites a peek at what is there. Curiosity leads us on with each room giving you a glimpse of the next, or echo of the last. So, the “footfalls” series began.

 

Please do come in, follow the breadcrumbs and make yourselves at home. Here I keep my most precious items: ideas, family history, treasures and elements of the natural world. I hope you will enjoy looking at these paintings and reading these stories. Maybe it will evoke some of your own memories and whispers from your past. Inspired by the words of T.S.Eliot, these paintings and stories visit the ideas of time passing and the fallibility of memory. What we remember becomes the truth and the eternal “what if” remains an unanswered question that we all ask of our past.The stories are inspired by my whakapapa, but are entirely fictional. Stories span the generations and the themes of love, duty and secrets, are as old as time itself.So here it is.....

 

“I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams'

                                                                         W.B. Yeats

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