AMATEUR ARTWORK: 2002 to 2005

Please note that all paintings listed by Artist Codes 0000 to 0020 were painted prior to my turning professional. I started to number them in this way not in any particular order, then realized that if I was to be a professional, I needed to have a proper coding practice. So I decided after these 21 pictures that I would have four-digit Artist Codes, the first two digits representing the year, and the second two digits the order in which I either painted or sketched the artworks (not necessarily completing them at the time), i.e. “1023” was painted in 2010 and was number 23 of 23 paintings started during that year.

0003 Golden Quince

Botanical Illustration. Artist Code: 0003. Completed November 2002. Original SOLD. Water colour. Framed size 18” x 22”.

SOLD at my Cambridge Open Studios Exhibition, 12 July 2008.

Golden Quince: Japanese Quince, Cydonia oblonga, originating from South west Asia, Turkey and Iran.

I was playing golf in late October 2002: as usual I had left the fairway. I was so busy looking for my ball in the long grass that I failed at first to spot the golden baubled fruits hanging from a Quince tree. My golf ball was nestled at its roots and when I looked up the golden pear drops dazzled me as the early morning autumn sun came from behind a cloud and showered the gems in sunlight. I sought permission to pick a branch and some fruit, to capture the weeping elegance of the branches under the weight of the ‘tantalizing’ fruit (though it is very bitter to the taste, and in Victorian meaning refers to temptation).

Poem:

Golden Temptation
The language of love cannot always speak
For havoc and stress it can sometimes wreak
The Quince is a golden, beautiful fruit
But its taste, oh so bitter, is not quite so cute
But as in temptation, if you follow the trend
Although gold at first, there’ll be tears in the end.