Original artwork description:

The Bright Field is a series of paintings inspired by the RS Thomas poem (see below). I noticed the sun shining on a bright field with the trees dark in the foreground and thought of the poem and knew I wanted to paint it. I like to swim in Hampstead Ladies Pond, London and as I look out through the dark trees to the bright field beyond, I am reminded of the poem.


The Bright Field

I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the
pearl of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realise now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

R S Thomas

Materials used:

oil paint