Flirty floatey forties fabric
Nik would love me to do a painting for her.
She's setting up my book… and time drifts.
Until… there's a big storm boiling up
out from Breaker Bay. And lupins, and it's
humid, and I love not being frozen. I'm
marking off two thirds of the painting so
it can travel in her car. Then I paint in
Winstonya, Silverstream Railway's newest
rescued steam engine, and he wants to fill
the entire bottom of the painting. This
isn't what I'd planned, but the back of
his tilted bum looks real good fronting the
Michaelmas daisies, and then there must be
a red wildflower hill lunging up above the
Pass of Branda cutting, above the archway
and instead of the ugly new mansions
six year old contentment Jack's Bay surf.
A childhood Oamaru Greggs jelly packet
ship comes along, and I paint it in, and
Nik being a train driver, and I want to put
Andrew looking awfully good in his angel
wings, blue sparkle sprayed over his tum
and, in a perfect world the passionate red
cups I got McGregor and me become three.
And my lovely friend Nik deserves all this.
1998 acrylic on hardboard 900 x 1200 mm