Flora Day Helston, 2022
This event over the years has provided a frequent source of ideas for my paintings , here are just a few examples, inspired by this wonderful Cornish tradition. When the bluebells carpet the nearby forest , it is time for …
New paintings at Gallery in St Mawes .
It was lovely to welcome Cathy from The Square Gallery, St Mawes for a cup of tea in the studio. Her friendly gallery is in the heart of the seaside village of St Mawes, and has shown my work for …
Children and Their Pets.
As a child I learned a great deal from loving and looking after animals that were reliant upon me. To see children with a passion who really want to get it right and who love their pets is heart warming. …
Truro Cathedral. The Stations of The Cross .
There are just a few remaining weeks to see The Stations of The Cross paintings on site in All Saints Chapel, Truro Cathedral . They will be coming down on 21st April 2022. If you do visit , you may …
An Interview with Cornwall Life Magazine.
A special thank you to Catherine Courtenay, Editor of Cornwall Life Magazine, for her article in the new April Issue. What do you do for living? I am a painter of stories, portraits, and places. All my life I have …
On Mothers Day x.
Ernest Proctor, 1886 – 1935. English artist, buried next to his wife Dod Proctor at St Hilary Church, Cornwall. St Hilary Church dates back to the 13th century. It is full of beautiful paintings from the 1920’s because of Fr Bernards …
A letter to Ukrainian People via The BBC World Service.
Here is a moving letter to the Ukrainian people that I read today. It is from the Journalist Aida Crekez, who lived through the Bosnian war, I thought you might like to read it too. “Dear friends,Humanitarian organisations here in …
While the world condemns Putin for his attack on Ukraine.
We all hold our breath, and fear for the lives and democracy of the Ukrainian people. George Orwell’s quote seems apt, ” All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on …
On Valentines Day.
“FALLING STARS” Do you remember still the falling stars that like swift horses through the heavens raced and suddenly leaped across the hurdles of our wishes—do you recall? And we did make so many! For there were countless numbers of …
Paintings return to Truro Cathedral.
The ten oil paintings which record The Passion and will be on view this year for Lent . The Stations of The Cross, record Christ’s final journey to his death and close with an image of Christs resurrection as He …
At Auction next week.
Many years ago I made this oil painting of Paula , who at the time was transitioning to become a woman with gender reassignment surgery . She sat for me in the studio and as I painted and we drank …
While winter waits .
When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least soundin fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,I go and lie down where the wood drakerests in his beauty …
Happy Christmas!
As we gather together at this special time of year , and we raise our glass’s to absent family and friends, I wish you happiness, warmth, love and good health in 2022 ! Zoe x
Visiting the dentist.
We have all been there ,from reception greetings into the waiting room, rows of seats …. which one to choose, local radio through muffled speakers, bored children, drill noises coming through closed doors. Recently it was my turn for a …
The Supermarket using an animal welfare App to select suppliers .
A two year trial by Waitrose is taking place, of a prize winning App designed by Scotlands Rural College . Their inspectors will check the quality of a farm animals life, recording and identifying different qualities of behaviour, such as …
A Ban on Child Marriage in UK comes closer.
From the debate on Friday 19th of November 2021 when the Bill was read a second time. MP Pauline Latham/ part of her speech – “For many people I speak to, it is a shock for them to learn that …
Remembrance Sunday.
On this special day we honour all of those brave men and women who faced unimaginable horrors in our name and in the line of duty. I think of their families and loved ones. As I child I witnessed the …
Sculpture of figure & cat.
One of my old Papermache Sculptures has turned up for sale on eBay, I wonder where she has been living. Made in 1981, after leaving college, while living at Redmarley Gloustershire. It is a sculpture of me and our cat …
It’s Halloween!
Its a time when many of us celebrate by carving pumpkins and lighting candles to keep evil away. We dress up in costumes, share creepy stories of ghosts and spooky mysteries….. and everyone knows that on All-Hallows Eve, witches can …
Goonhilly Earth Station is amazing!
In 2018 I made a small Ex Votive painting about Goonhilly Earth Station which was part of the 100 painted vows series. Today I was lucky enough to actually visit the site to hear about the amazing and very complex …
Shhh, sleeping cats.
Over the years I have often painted my cats. I thought I’d post a few archive paintings of my much loved old moggies, (muses), in a variety of relaxed poses.The last is a new arrival rescued with his sister, and …
Autumn.
I love this time of year. When Mother nature begins to retreat to replenish her reserves. As a metaphor for life , I too think of autumn as being a time of harvest, completion and transition , with winter a …
Courage.
Next week an exhibition celebrating the life of Muriel Gardener opens in London at the Freud Museum. It seems she came from an affluent American family and was a woman of enormous courage and compassion, taking great risks to save …
9/11
Today my thoughts are with the victims, families, friends and emergency services . Those robbed of their futures and all of those who’s lives are changed for ever, as the world was changed for ever. T S Eliot. The Rock. …
Summer
Summer is a special time, perhaps that feeling began in childhood having time to yourself because of the school holidays. To me it now offers the opportunity to recharge low batteries after the grey winter months . Flower filled borders, …
Afghanistan.
It is impossible not to feel great sadness and compassion for all those involved and living in Afghanistan at the moment, as we witness their escalated fear and suffering. When I listen to the news each day, I think of …
New Project.
I have just taken delivery in the studio, of this recycled wooden chair. It is the second that I have had made from drawings, by a friend and carpenter, he can make and fix almost anything …. brilliant! After some …
Hokusai & Mount Fuji .
Hokusai returned again and again to Mount Fuji as subject matter. He considered the mountain to be the source of secret of immortality because of the goddess in the tale of the Bamboo cutter, who deposited the elixir of life …
Distortion & the Self – Milan Kundera & Francis Bacon
“for there is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one’s own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels with someone, for someone, a pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echoes.” Milan Kundera, ‘The Unbearable …