hanbury hall

Painting Commentaries

Hanbury Hall

Based on actual features in the gardens of Hanbury Hall, the blue gazebo frames the view across the lawn, of another blue gazebo, or perhaps it is, impossibly or paradoxically, a view of itself. The trellis frames the view of the church spire. The swallows are circling freely in and out of the gazebo, as the sitter catches sight of one. The birds have their own world, and are as oblivious to any meaning we might see in the scene, as they are unbothered by the content of the green bag on the seat.

The painting is of a real place, but some details have been changed. We look through the window, out onto the bright sunny world beyond, from the comfortable shade of the gazebo, and there across the serene green of the lawn, lazy in the Sun, is something familiar. Could it even possibly be that what we are seeing there is the place we are looking out from? Could it be that the swallow who has flown in through one arch, and is about to fly out through the other, is the same swallow we see in the distance, circling in and out of the gazebo?

Is all this separateness, all this what happens where, and what happens when, really so real? And what is this baggage that we keep with us? What is in it?

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Painting Commentaries

Hanbury Hall