While in New Zealand recently, staying with Leo and Paul, we visited several museums, which gave me ideas for a new painting.
I made sketches of eel traps in Rotarua and Wellington as they have a direct connection for me, with the ones which were once so prevalent in Ely.
I was also fascinated with the Meeting Houses we saw in Waitangi and Auckland and made drawings and took photos of these, also. The very structure of them is sacred to the Maori people because it represents the bones/ribcage of their ancestors.
This got me thinking, how I could represent Leo going to work in a far away country and our worry that if he stayed too long, he might not be able to get back so easily.
The symbolism of the trap is obvious and the beams of the Meeting House could represent New Zealand but how to show the country he might want to get back to?
I am sometimes laid on the sofa (increasingly, it seems!) staring up at the beams in our 300 year old cottage and marvelling at how each one is so different.
Perhaps this structure could make a connection with the houses many thousands of miles away?
I'll let the ideas swish around for a bit longer and see if an image starts to form in my head.
I made sketches of eel traps in Rotarua and Wellington as they have a direct connection for me, with the ones which were once so prevalent in Ely.
I was also fascinated with the Meeting Houses we saw in Waitangi and Auckland and made drawings and took photos of these, also. The very structure of them is sacred to the Maori people because it represents the bones/ribcage of their ancestors.
This got me thinking, how I could represent Leo going to work in a far away country and our worry that if he stayed too long, he might not be able to get back so easily.
The symbolism of the trap is obvious and the beams of the Meeting House could represent New Zealand but how to show the country he might want to get back to?
I am sometimes laid on the sofa (increasingly, it seems!) staring up at the beams in our 300 year old cottage and marvelling at how each one is so different.
Perhaps this structure could make a connection with the houses many thousands of miles away?
I'll let the ideas swish around for a bit longer and see if an image starts to form in my head.
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