Description

The First
Swallow Returns is a 40x40x1.5 inches oil on canvas painting showing a solitary
swallow arriving back to her English meadow in springtime. Grasses and white
meadow flowers are in the foreground and through them you just catch glimpses
of a river which meanders diagonally from right to left and into the fields
beyond. The sky is blue and the sun streams across from the right. The feel of
the painting is one of relief and optimism as the return of the swallows from
Africa heralds spring and summer in England. This painting was inspired by a
stretch of the river Medway that you can walk from Fordcombe, near Tunbridge
Wells (postcode TN3 0RS). I walk there often as it sits in a wide river plain
with gentle hills of the Kent Weald on each side of it. The river is not large
at this point and there are lots of wildflowers along the edges. Swallows like
the river as they can swoop low over it gathering insects. It is art nouveau
and contemporary in style made by building layers of paint up over several
weeks. It has wide white edges and is ready to hang.

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