Spring has sprung

 

ⓒHeather James 2021

We're enjoying a mini heatwave here in London. It's due to last all of three days and I'm planning to make the most of it. Imagine, if you will, that we're standing together in a circle on Well Street Common and our yoga instructor says 'raise your arms to the sky all the way up to the sun'. Well, that's what this drawing above makes me think of.

I was inspired to begin working on this drawing after I had crossed the common on my way back from Tesco hauling groceries home and there was this grown woman enjoying herself swinging on one of the swings at the kids' playground. Then she stopped and continued sitting there while she enjoyed a moment hugging herself and she looked very happy.

Immediately after that I watched another (grown) woman spin around several times with her arms out, like a helicopter, then she took her shoes off and as she walked across the grass in her socks she banged the soles of her shoes together making a satisfying thumping noise which she repeated. I quite envied both of them and enjoyed their exuberance. Maybe this is the effect of the sap rising at the onset of spring and that can bring out the child in all of us.

In this drawing I wanted to somehow represent the life force I had enjoyed witnessing on the common. I began tentatively drawing the circles. Then, as is my practice, I stopped for a day or two while I considered my next move. At this point I sat in our garden and drew some of the spring flowers and put them at the foot of the page. Another pause followed.

Then my husband had a look at my progress and said the circles reminded him of time lapse photos of stars and he was dead right. What immediately struck me was how much these photos look like paintings made by Vincent Van Gogh. Rather than risk contravening copyright I suggest you google him and you'll see what I mean.

I decided at this point to just concentrate on the two elements of circles and flowers. I felt the drawing was complete once I had increased the density and number of circles and included the sun.