SEPTEMBER 8, 2011 - OCTOBER 8, 2011
Poetry has been a constant source of inspiration for Ian Friend throughout his 35 year career and the title of this exhibition is drawn from poetry by English poet Edward Thomas (1878-1917)…
But these things also are spring’s –
On banks by the roadside the grass
Long-dead that is greyer now
Than all the winter it was;
The shell of a little snail bleached
In the grass: chip of flint, and mite
Of chalk; and the small bird’s dung
In splashes of purest white: … (an excerpt)
This poem, and Friend’s current body of paintings, pays homage to the Southern chalk downs landscape in England which nurtured the artist in his childhood and youth. The gestural subtlety expressed in these works references the remembered joy of chasing butterflies and the delight of childhood reverie.