April 2016

[Jane Noakes]

A spring walk took me to the north enterance of Highgate Cemetry, London, England. Through the locked gate you can see this intriguing funerary building. With it sharp diagonal lines and triangular rooftops it suggested the energy of mankind striving against the inevitability of death. Contrast this with the organic curves and irregular shapes of the surrounding trees. The tension of these themes is unified in the ornamental shrubs in their lead containers. The 'almost' spheres of the clipped bay trees acting as guards against the chaos of nature and death.

I like the way the canvas reads from left to right, moving from representational drawing to a more abstraction expressionist technique.