egg tempera on panel in standing frames (by Patrick Guyver) 33 x 29 cm, including frame, August 2026

I draw in old books and those drawings are my ideas, my notes, my more abstract response to the emotion of seeing. These books are piled up and used after-the-fact mostly to compose other drawings in other books.

I turned to my books for inspiration on my previous painting and liked the outcome. Sometimes I put books in my paintings but could the images move outside the books and become symbols for places in my egg tempera paintings? I am not a landscape painter in egg tempera, but places are important to me and imbuing my still life with the emotion of a place… I wondered if that could be a possibility?

In 2017 I made a book full of drawings over three weeks in Maine. The book, Holiday House, had the rule that each drawing had to be made on the premises. There were many more pages to fill than days on the Island, so I found myself making night drawings.

As I looked through the drawings I had a pang of homesickness for a place. Each of the objects in this still life has a story that deepens my memories and the little bird with the clock represents that flicker of desire to turn back that clock.

This one will go in one of Patrick’s gorgeous, gilded standing frames. You will be able to see it at Snape 13 – 21st at the Pond Gallery.