Purple flowers, 10 May 2020

A cold south westerly wind brought clarity and brilliance to Mother's Day. Restrictions are slightly lifted and the road is full of people walking with dogs and running in the bright sun. A knock on the door; there was a huge bunch of flowers with some small legs underneath it like an Edward Lear drawing - it was thrust into my hands and the beaming man ran into his van for the next delivery- they came from the son who has gone to live in northern NSW where he was born and grew up. Purple, the colour chosen by sufragettes, was considered in the ancient world to be the most beautiful colour because it held tones of red in its lustrous surface. Purple was the emperor's colour – and you could be prosecuted for dressing in a purple robe if you were not of the imperial class. Thousands of tiny shellfish (murex) were needed to make the dye for a metre of cloth. Looking at the deep red walls of Pompeii, the painter Mark Rothko thought that colour lifted the mind to a place beyond logic. Like those glowing flowers, suddenly appearing at the door.

Diana Wood Conroy,'Purple flowers', watercolour on Arches paper, 15 x 21 cm, 10 May 2020