Signed, limited edition giclee print

Size: Image 35cm x 35cm, paper 45cm x 45cm

Green Broom is an experiment in combining my new love of painting with lettering. What could I do that was music, lettering and flora? I started by looking up to see if Benjamin Britten had composed anything around flora, it was then I found Five Flower Songs Op.47. Britten had written the music around five songs for Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst, who were very dear friends of his, on the occasion of their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. This story I found endearing.

On listening to the five songs I was immediately attracted to No.5 – I found it on YouTube being sung by a small choir. I am myself in a choir so another connection! I honed it down to two words ‘Green Broom’. Working with black and white pens on paper I started getting a feel of the image, words and music. To represent music I tore up photocopied pages of the music, drew and painted music notations. I listened to the piece on my iPad in the studio, playing it over and over again.

A colour piece on paper was completed next, getting to feel the words and music, finding images and cutting stencils. The final piece went onto the canvas adding and taking away to represent the build-up and final crescendo.

Original piece: pen, paper collage, acrylic paint on canvas.  Extract from Benjamin Britten, Five Flower Songs Op.47 for mixed chorus – Ballad of Green Broom Op.47, No.5 © 1951 by Boosey & Hawkes Ltd.

Signed limited edition print of 100 copies.