‘True North’ and original artwork by Lockie Chapman - 2/5 in series
Each print personally signed and titled by Lockie
Watercolour, acrylic, goache and ink professionally Giclée printed to the highest standard of quality on Hahnemüle 308gsm German etching paper
Measurements A4: 21.0 x 29.7cm
Frame not included
Lockie says:
" 'Left/Right'? Absolutely not! This wee figure is heading one direction only and that is 'True North', the title of my second painting in a series of five which I am very proud and pleased to present to you.
I was once told by a friend I had a 'true north'. I think she meant that she thought I had an inner compass or gyro which leads towards something. Maybe a dream, maybe a destiny - I'll leave that one with you to ponder.
In what has been a momentous period of change, reflection and recalibration, it is now time for the wee figure in the painting to get back on his compass, back on his true north.
The beat up, tired old car of Left/Right is no longer in the picture. Not being able to go any further with that as a vehicle, the little dude is off on foot, under his own steam and power and going his own way, choosing to disregard the roadsigns offered.
With the arrows from Left/Right framing the picture - a reminder and a respect for what has been and gone - we now see this space ahead is the most glorious field of......flowers!
The flowers are all significant and specific. This is a field full of tulips, daffodils and poppies and each flower represents three men close to my heart who have died and who have shaped this last recent period of my life. This may sound morbid or gloomy, but I assure you its not. At least, its not to me. This is a release. A liberation. An acknowledgment. A shift and rebirth of something heartbreaking into something beautiful. An important field to be walking and making headway through. An important field to acknowledge and then leave be.
The tulip, Im sure many of you will know, represents my friend Timmy Matley. After his tragic and untimely death in 2018, I posted an online picture of his garden, in full bloom with tulips, red, orange, yellow. The tulip became his symbol. In the last few years, the tulip has featured lots in my paintings. This is a series of five paintings and they are all mapped out and pre-ordained. You will see the tulip twice more in the series. In True North, the tulips are lining the path and shaping the direction forward. Timmy was my dearest of friends who inspired, delighted, exhilarated, taught and encouraged me so greatly - it is a great honour for me to honour him in this way, I take his gifts and memory with me everywhere, always. In symbolism, depending on your school of thought, the tulip represents 'perfect, true love'. Yep. Perfect. That'll do for me and That Irish Boy.
Opposite the tulip and similarly dotted throughout is the daffodil. Tragically, and verging on the ludicrous and absolute absurd, less than 12 hours after learning of Timmy's death, a very dear friend of mine killed himself in my home in London. Double whack. The odds of one of these deaths happening is pretty slim. I wonder what a statistician would say about the likelihood of being connected to both of these would be? Either way, April 10 2018, my number was up.
I won't tell you his name, but I will tell you that he was thoughful, kind, sensitive, intelligent, insightful and ridiculously talented. He could've had a 'Sir' in front of his name one day. I used two tell him that. He was a proud Welshman. Hence the daffodil. It was an absolute tragedy to lose him and it ripped giant holes around his large and loving group of family and friends. The symbolic representation of a daffodil means 'rebirth and new beginnings'. Yes, thank you, I'll take that one too.
I had thought that would be it for the flowers, as they both shaped and informed so much about the last few years. They were a catalyst for that beat up old car reaching the end of its journey in Left/Right. But there's one more flower in the field (well, two more really...).
The poppy: It wouldn't be right to not acknowledge my dad in this field of flowers. My dear dad died in 2013. During his life, he was fascinated by the history of the first and second world wars. Fascinated is an understatement, it was more of a delighted obsession - with the politics, the battles, the graves, the topography, the whole lot. I remember he came and stayed with me in London a few years before he died and I had a few days off, so I found myself following my dad around the First World War battlefields of Belgium! So to remember my dear dad, I have represented him as the poppy, the flower which grew all over the western front at the end of WWI and which now means so much to so many as the symbol and representation of remembrance.
And here they all are in True North, dancing away in this magnificent field full of light and beauty. Lighting the way and forming the path for someone who is listening to their heart and heading on. All these flowers represent remembrance, perfect true love, rebirth and new beginnings. What an image this conjures up for me, to be walking through a field dancing and lit by these beautiful words before moving on to a new chapter and a new beginning.
I didn't mention the gladioli on the bottom left! Now, the gladdy is just there because I really like gladdys and whilst looking at symbolism of flowers, I learned that gladioli represent strength and integrity and I thought to myself 'yes, that'll do nicely thank you'. I love gladioli in my house whenever I can, I love that they are so loud, proud, bombastic, bright and beautiful. And as far as I'm concerned when yore heading towards a true north, strength is needed and integrity is vital.
Now. Enough about that field. Let's talk about that sky!
It WHIRLS! It DANCES! I am noticing the stars in my paintings are starting to have so much more movement and so much more of a story to tell. There's something cookin' up there! They all appear to be either leading to something or are they growing from something?
The headland from Left/Right now looms closer and we can see more detail. Is that a tower? Is that a flagpole? Is the moon becoming fuller? Are the rings around it growing? Gah! Movement, movement everywhere...
It will all become clear in the third painting in the series and I will release it when it is time. I do not know when this will be, we'll have to just see. Leave this with me, I'm working on it.
Follow those gut feelings, my friends. They're not lying to you. Acknowledge the past, look to the future, surround yourself with good people who care for you, respect yourself, let go, leave things be, head up, crack on.
Follow that True North
With much love,
Lockie Xx"