Brendan Burgess
Founder
- Messages
- 52,045
I have donated funds from the Prevailing Art Fund to enable the National Gallery of Ireland to acquire this piece from the Olivier Cornet Gallery.
The Plants We Played With' (acrylic on Gesso panel, 134cm x 90cm, 2015)
Plant names:
Common Nettle Urtica dioica
Broadleaved Dock Rumex obtusiflius
Hogweed Heracleum sphondylium
Dandelion Taraxacum officinale
Common Poppy Papaver Rhoeas
Daisy Bellis perennis
Ribwort Plantain Plantago lanceolata
Cleavers Galium aparine
Cock's foot Dactylis glomerata
The artist's description of the work:
Why is the piece a combination of drawing and painting?
Because memories can be sketchy, we paint them in our minds eye, we fill in the relevant aspects...
The painted parts highlight the aspects of the plants that were traditionally used in childhood games.
The composition helps to join the narrative for those memories.
For example the Nettle - dare to touch, is opposite the Dock - its antidote.
The Hogweed which made our pea shooters has the vetch entwined in it, the vetch pods contain the peas.
The Dandelion Clock is untouched - as time in memories standing still.
The startling red of the Poppy catches the eye. We made little fairies from the flower heads. Fairies are part of childhood imagination, fantasies, the past.
The Daisy, modestly hiding amongst the other plants has lost one petal, 'He loves me....he loves me not'. Who knows the future or the outcome of the game!
Plantain soldiers, we hit the heads off each others soldiers. Is this the last man standing?
The Stickies, or Cleavers have woven themselves amongst the plants, they do stick to everything with their little hairs. We used to throw them at each other.
The grasses with which we made whistling sounds are mingling in the field or hedgerow scene. Often sound evokes the strongest memories.
As children we roamed the fields amusing ourselves not needing anything more than our imaginations. I feel privileged to have had that freedom and still enjoy the occasional whistling grass to sound like a pheasant, or to blow the dandelion clocks to check the time.
The Plants We Played With' (acrylic on Gesso panel, 134cm x 90cm, 2015)
Plant names:
Common Nettle Urtica dioica
Broadleaved Dock Rumex obtusiflius
Hogweed Heracleum sphondylium
Dandelion Taraxacum officinale
Common Poppy Papaver Rhoeas
Daisy Bellis perennis
Ribwort Plantain Plantago lanceolata
Cleavers Galium aparine
Cock's foot Dactylis glomerata
The artist's description of the work:
Why is the piece a combination of drawing and painting?
Because memories can be sketchy, we paint them in our minds eye, we fill in the relevant aspects...
The painted parts highlight the aspects of the plants that were traditionally used in childhood games.
The composition helps to join the narrative for those memories.
For example the Nettle - dare to touch, is opposite the Dock - its antidote.
The Hogweed which made our pea shooters has the vetch entwined in it, the vetch pods contain the peas.
The Dandelion Clock is untouched - as time in memories standing still.
The startling red of the Poppy catches the eye. We made little fairies from the flower heads. Fairies are part of childhood imagination, fantasies, the past.
The Daisy, modestly hiding amongst the other plants has lost one petal, 'He loves me....he loves me not'. Who knows the future or the outcome of the game!
Plantain soldiers, we hit the heads off each others soldiers. Is this the last man standing?
The Stickies, or Cleavers have woven themselves amongst the plants, they do stick to everything with their little hairs. We used to throw them at each other.
The grasses with which we made whistling sounds are mingling in the field or hedgerow scene. Often sound evokes the strongest memories.
As children we roamed the fields amusing ourselves not needing anything more than our imaginations. I feel privileged to have had that freedom and still enjoy the occasional whistling grass to sound like a pheasant, or to blow the dandelion clocks to check the time.
Last edited: