One for Sorrow Two for Joy

'One for Sorrow' is a painting of Rathbone Point on Nightingale Estate Point as seen from my flat. I have often considered painting the view from the back windows of my flat. For a long time I thought this view was too mundane to make pictures from asides from that the architectural details are very complicated. Despite these reservations early last year I began work on this picture and then another painting called ‘Two for Joy’ which is also painted entirely from life. 

The view consists of a plane tree with some street buildings and the distant tower of Rathbone Point on the Nightingale Estate. The plane tree is quite amazing, it must be at least a hundred years old and it’s gone feral set as it is in an out of the way place its branches have never been trimmed, asides from that it much taller than the four-storey block of flats where I live. As I worked on the painting I couldn’t help but become aware of the activities of the local wild life. Squirrels run up and down the twisty boughs of the old plane tree and use them as a springboard to gain access to the roofs nearby. The occasional cat patrols the wall below and sometimes a fox can be seen slinking towards the rubbish bins. But mostly it’s the birds, there are pigeons, seagulls, magpies, crows, sparrows, blackbirds, the occasional finch and a pair of yellow tits which are my favourites.

As this is a looking down painting the eye level is very high and as usual I’ve included more space than I can see without moving my head up and down. This makes for an interesting composition with the trunk of the plane tree outside of the picture and a long drop from the top of the distant tower to the overgrown gardens below. The rather drab buildings are framed by a pattern of branches and shadows that seem to want to burst out of the picture. And just to exaggerate the space further I’ve painted in a magpie hovering just outside the picture plane.

Magpies are considered to be very intelligent creatures, they have been known to use their beaks as tools, imitate human speech and work in teams. Also they seem to experience both suffering and joy as they like to play games and show evidence of grieving. In European Culture they are thought to seek and hoard shiny objects, especially wedding rings, perhaps that's why they are considered to be of birds of good or evil omen.

There is an old nursery rhyme.

One for sorrow, two for mirth, three for a funeral, and four for birth, five for heaven, six for hell, seven for the devil, his own self.

And another more recent version goes like this.

One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret, never to be told, eight for a wish, nine for a kiss, ten for a bird, you must not miss.

By the way there are four squirrels in the picture above and only one in the painting below. Can you spot them?

This picture was painted in tandem with ‘One for Sorrow’ which was featured in my previous blog. In this painting the old plane tree is the main subject and I decided to paint it as twilight is setting in. It is painted onto a brown ground as opposed to the blue/grey ground used in ‘One for Sorrow’. In both pictures I had wondered whether or this subject was interesting enough to make a picture. However as I wanted to do some observational painting I decided to go ahead. Both pictures use the space outside of the picture plane, in this painting both of the magpies are floating out of the foreground. These birds are quite common where I live and they are more interesting to look at than birds such as pigeons which I had tried to use in earlier versions.