The Artistic Merit of Wheelbarrows

Over the seasons this year, this view of Avebury Manor's kitchen garden has filled out with colour. It is the ideal kind of composition I love to paint. Angular architecture, bold areas of colours against a cooler background. Natural frames of trees and walls create a strong structural backdrop.

But what really makes this image for me is the wheelbarrow. Colourful, whimsical and bold. With Nasturtiums, sacrificial plants loved by caterpillars next to the ordered vegetable plot. A balance of weight against the brightness. It seems strange how flowers, almost weightlessly bobbing in the breeze can be darker than the solid white wall.

This is currenly on my wall whilst drying. it is a white wall and doesn't really work! I think this original will probably end up in someone's house on a darker wall, where the light colours will really shine.