30 x 30cm, mixed media with copper leaf on panel.
The Apricot Tree. A memory that someone I know, older and a lifelong gardener, repeats as a story that has developed a numinous quality over time. She has an apricot tree which had never fruited, and a couple of years ago, one summer morning she went outside and saw that the tree was magically bearing bright little fruit in the sunshine. She repeats the memory so often that I expect to be told about the 'magical apricot tree' every time we speak, like a folk-tale or fairy story; which in turn has generated images I now have a memory of.
I haven't said a word (to her) about how the apricots are likely a rather poignant by-product of climate change, and how lucky she is that she still has abundant bees where she lives to pollinate. Still, I marvel at how the earth manages to create so much beauty through such troubling times; and decided to try, in my own small way, to do the same.
Location: Thaxted, Essex
