Clocktower Cottage

Clocktower Cottage is a mediation on the nature of time. Two events inspired the painting: the birth of a friend’s baby followed by a visit to a dear old man, who calmly told me we would probably not meet again in this life. I was struck by how, from first breath to last, we are enmeshed in the mystery of time.

Clocktower Cottage is a multifaceted allegory encompassing many dimensions of time, from the ephemeral to the enduring. The regal Edwardian tower looms over its weather-worn cottage: the seemingly inseparable pair to stand for centuries. Yet the clock marks each minute, the bell tolls each hour, and the cottage greets each season.

Fragile mushrooms spring up overnight and pass as quickly. Flowers bloom, then whither. The spreading beech tree endures sun and storm before the years claim it. The cascading stream both wears the earth to bedrock – in the fullness of time it will claim even the granite dam – and meanders in its course, influenced by the very Earth it erodes.

The statue of Saint Francis will outlast its namesake, but it too, will inevitably crumble in time. And above all, the heavens form a proscenium where the script of an eternal promise is played out by the antics of rolling wisps of clouds – the ultimate theater for time itself.

In a way, a painting is itself a time traveler – its message memorialized for generations to follow. The message of Clocktower Cottage is one that I believe is as timeless as a fresh new morning: your stay on Earth is brief, consider the days and be wise.