Scarecrow Paintings 2020

Scarecrows embody the themes of isolation, loneliness, abandonment. The figures are closely linked to humanity. There is something there, but not life. Designed to protect the seedlings that put food on our table, their protective function is reversed as the sight of these folklore sculptures vanishes from the landscape, replaced by mechanical wind sculptures, gunfire and pesticides. The natural link with the birds they are supposed to be frightening is fused with a sense of community and safety in numbers, placed together in the garden during lockdown. Nature reasserts calm and beauty to a polluted and damaged earth.