When the Dogs Bite: 28th September 2025

garden check

brings a late blooming cornflower

unexpected delight

Wolverhampton 1987

I was inspired by the works of Lewty

and his drawings of liminal worlds wherin

landscaped figures would writhe in the beauty

of fractured dreams and half-remembered sin.

Neither patience nor skill I had acquired

of yet, nor the space to strip paper down

to translucent sheets of rag retired,

reused as layers where the colour drowned.

My emulation of these works provoked

the use of words within the paintings wove

with canvas strips from skip-recovered work

by students to whom such talent that I strove.

But then, on textured surfaces I made

with canvas over woven stretchers frayed.

When the Dogs Bite