The Colour Of Life

One of the many joys of this painting is the evocation of the natural world, physical, timeless and symbolic.?We see in the colours life's new developments,?old habits swept away, the world built up to a living canvass of truth, as a bridge to the next life and hopefully the prospect of an overarching heaven.?

In another sense, reflection on the colours helps you think about the relationships between generations- young and old - across different cultures all bringing about unstoppable changes in society .The emergence of one society from ancient periods and its entrance into the modern period. However, the boundaries set by each block of colour reminds us to expect either resistance or easy acceptance of these changes. The world is a constant swirling kaleidoscope but there are still fixed points within it. Dazzling displays in one look but other perceptions bring a reminder that some things will always stay the same under many moons and suns.

Shakespeare’s seven ages of man can be traced in the picture but there is an alternative message to be found in lines from William Wordsworth’s poem -The Rainbow. “The Child is father of the Man; And I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety” he wrote.

The Rainbow comes and goes,

And lovely is the Rose,

The Moon doth with delight

Look round her when the heavens are bare,

Waters on a starry night

Are beautiful and fair.

The sunshine is a glorious birth.

But yet I know, where're I go,

That there hath passed away a glory from the earth.

In these lines about a rainbow, Wordsworth acknowledges that nature is as beautiful as it was when he was young; but the ‘glory’ colours the earth used to contain seems to have passed away.