Original painting, watercolour and pastel on deckled rag paper
Artwork dimensions: 84 (h) x 59 (w) cm
Float framed dimensions approx: 100 x 75 cm
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Tortoise and the Hare
I've always loved the idea that a painting can hold far more than can ever be discovered in a single glance. When I began Tortoise and the Hare, I wasn't simply creating an image—I was building a world. I wanted every corner of the painting to hold another encounter, another interaction and another story waiting for someone else to find. It is an invitation to wander without destination, following whatever catches your curiosity and allowing the painting to unfold in its own time.
The title offers the first story, but certainly not the last. The tortoise and the hare quietly introduce the world, yet they are only two of countless characters inhabiting it. Birds, butterflies, flowers and hidden creatures each become part of a larger living conversation, where every pathway leads somewhere unexpected and every return offers the opportunity to discover something previously overlooked. I won't point those stories out—they belong to you once you step inside.
This painting grew from my fascination with the extraordinary richness of the natural world. Every time I spend time in nature, I am reminded that its inventiveness is beyond anything I could hope to create. Rather than trying to recreate a particular place, I wanted to respond to that sense of wonder by imagining an ecosystem/world where abundance, beauty and curiosity exist without boundaries. The painting grows from a place somewhere between admiration and invention, where imagination becomes a celebration of everything that continually inspires it.
What excites me most is the thought that this painting will continue to change through the eyes of the person who lives with it. I hope it never feels completely known. Instead, I hope it becomes a place people return to again and again, discovering another bird, another relationship, another moment of quiet humour or another unexpected connection each time they pause and long enough to look.
Ultimately, Tortoise and the Hare is about the joy of wandering. It is an imagined world shaped by curiosity, where every detail contributes to a larger story and every story belongs to a living ecosystem. If the painting encourages someone to slow down, to explore without expectation and to find themselves returning to it years later with the same sense of curiosity they felt on the first day, then I feel it has achieved everything I hoped it could.
