Original artwork description:

'The Earth is Teeming' is an exquisite egg tempera painting with punched water gilding on an oak panel.

This painting was made in autumn, when life recedes from the visible world. It forms part of a small series called 'Abundance' and here the focus is on the teeming life below the ground, biding its time, waiting to burst out when the sun warms the earth again in the spring.

In this painting, a huge, brilliant, blazing sun fills the upper part of the picture, weighing down on the deep red ground below, drawing up the life hidden beneath. Packed together in the bottom of the picture are all kinds of small creatures - strange, sometimes repellent, sometimes unexpectedly beautiful - painted in a style at the same time minutely detailed and decoratively stylised. Amongst the creatures shown are an earwig, a ground bee, a house centipede, a green weevil, a 14 spot ladybird and a Malaysian trumpet weevil. In the centre is a huge, sinuous scorpion.

One feeler of the house centipede protrudes above the ground, groping towards the light and warmth, suggesting that all of these creatures will soon burst out and populate the empty landscape.

I was particularly pleased to include a house centipede in this picture as I was unfamiliar with them before I moved to France. The first time that I saw one in my house, I was terrified by this exotic-looking animal, but I have since come to find them strangely wonderful and welcome their appearance.

The oak panel was prepared with white gesso, made from calcium carbonate and animal skin glue; this was incised using a compass to create the arcs of the sun. A red bole was applied in the areas to be gilded and 23 carat gold leaf laid on top by the traditional water gilding method. The gold was then burnished to a deep, even sheen and punched to make it glitter in the light. The paint was made by hand grinding raw pigments in egg yolk and water.

The painting is signed and dated on the reverse, with a d-ring attached so that it is ready to hang.

Materials used:

Oak panel, gesso, gold leaf, egg tempera paint, pigments

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