City of Lights Series

CITY of LIGHTS Series
 

Chrysanthemums grown in metropolitan gardens

In 1979, and the mid 1980's, I engaged in a journey to visit various Chrysanthemum growers in private gardens, firstly in Japan, where this national flower is known as the kiku. Thereafter, in London's East End and beyond to suburban Metroland, where I was born and raised. Here, the art works were inspired by John Betjeman's book of verse, A Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954).

Further of these rare beauties were gifted to me from horticulturists in Westminster, London and travelled back to the Limehouse studio with me. The petals, in-curved, always caught the light rather like satin buildings arranged as a suburban town plan, with each exquisitely formed petal juxtaposed in a perfected unity of purpose. These hybrids touched my love of quiet harmony and I continued the series in Venice, one early autumn evening in 2000. I would paint a cross or dot on some of the petals, to correspond with the drawing and allow me to keep track of their location as the observational work progressed.

Again, in 2016 in my studio in Hertfordshire, I used the monochrome work from 1985 as reference for larger pieces where the arrangement of petals, which I affectionately term the City of Lights, has found a place in my visual mythology as a euphemism for optimism.

Coral G Guest