Florence Park   watercolours since 2020

xv   HIGH SUMMER

. . . a light out of the darkness. . .

Our back yard: night is coming on, the sky has cleared after a heavy rain.
A couple of things that were at the back of my mind here: Van Morrison's song of the same title, and Henri Le Sidaner's evening paintings of his garden at Gerberoy. The urn is planted with black petunias.

Watercolour: 400 x 270 mm.   2023 - 2024

xiv   BOUNDARY LINE

Merton Field viewed from the walk that runs along an outside section of the old city walls, on the inside lies Merton College and the Fellows' Garden.

Watercolour: 400 x 260 mm.   2023

xxiv   CONVERSATION PIECE

It is over seven years since I have painted a picture at this larger size.
Our living room with left to right: a pair of Ghost chairs, one of a pair of antique French chairs I have re-upholstered with clear acrylic (the other is out of frame but its shadow falls across the picture), our un re-upholstered Gustavian sofa, all in the light of a low mid winter sun.
Watercolour: 620 x 415 mm.   2022 - 2023

xiii   DRESDEN

A picture postcard can afford a kind of travel in times of lockdown: Caspar David Friedrich’s painting of his wife Caroline standing at his studio window looking out over the Elbe.
I have slightly altered the rendering of the postcard: extending the height of the window and heightening the tone and hue of the view contained - drawing the eye to a bright world beyond.
The evening sun streaming through the blinds of my new studio here in Oxford.     

Watercolour: 400x 270 mm.   2021 - 2022

Private Collection: Portland, Oregon. 

xii   CROSSING AT KITAKAMAKURA

Daylight is fading, we are sitting on the steps of the temple Engakuji, a pilgrimage to Yasujiro Ozu’s hometown Kitakamakura. His tombstone is in the temple’s graveyard behind us. The railway station is just to the right of the crossing – so he would pass here on his daily commute to the film studios at Ofuna, his house was near Jochiji Temple which is to the left on the other side of the line.    

Watercolour: 400x 270 mm.   2018 – 2021

Artist’s Collection.