Original artwork description:

This painting is the latest in my gold series. It was inspired by my local wheatfields at the end of a long hot summer, and going into autumn. Golden sheaves of wheat dance in the breeze, and a beautiful oak tree sits on the horizon in the distance.

Harvest is the most important time of the agricultural calendar; the fortunes of farms, families, and even entire communities are tied to its outcome. Unsurprisingly, harvest has developed its own array of deities, traditions, and superstitions to safeguard its success, which are found in almost every farming culture worldwide.

In Britain children used to be employed in gleaning or leasing: picking up the stray ears of corn from the stubble. This was exhausting work involving hours bent double in the sun. The last sheaf of corn was always saved. This was believed to contain the corn spirit, which was gradually condensed as harvest progressed until it reached the final sheaf to be cut. Often the sheaf was scattered on the fields in spring, returning the spirit to the fields. In some areas it was hung up for the hungry birds to peck on New Year’s Day; in others it was made into a corn dolly. This tradition exists across Europe and it is believed by many in the pagan tradition that this is a relic of the millennia-old belief in the Dying-and-Rising God or God of the Green, who dies in Autumn to be reborn the following Spring.

This painting was painted with golden acrylic paints, and marbling inks, on a Loxley gold canvas. It measures 12x12 inches, and is strung with picture cord. It is signed at the back.

Materials used:

Acrylic paint and marbling inks

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