Sunshine Days are Coming
2021
Info
Title of artwork: Sunshine Days are Coming
Artist: Natalie Forrester
Year of execution: 2021
Size: 43.4cm wide by 54.23cm high
Technical data: acrylic paint on canvas
(the canvas is originally from northern Italy, hand stretch around a wooden frame)
Please see poem below
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Poem by artist about her artwork:
With purity of soul she perseveres
eager to be optimistic
almost childlike.
She searches her mind
for simpler days past.
A girl giggles in a gallant garden
unexpected blue skies
quintessential white fluffy clouds
Summer is here:
‘Get out of the house!’
Sandy blonde, home-cut fringe
tanned bare legs,
she has a look of foreign, that one!
Shoeless feet on emerald earth
skipping, twisting, twirling
in faded turquoise
happy hand-me-downs
a twig as a wand.
Wood pigeons coo lazily aloft
laurels and deep evergreens
Woosh! A cackle
and hum behind her as
cold water hits her heels.
It can’t be raining, not again!
She turns to seek the source
Ah! The garden hose!
Peering under the arc
of kaleidoscopic spray
she spies the culprit:
Brother! In all his menacing glory
Firey freckled nose scrunched
baring a shark-like toothy grin
Without a word of warning
A water fight has been declared.
Quick! Get the bucket!
The German Shepherd wags
its dark tail in approval
As it swaggers off to avoid the spray
Shouts, squeals and screams
bounce off the white house walls
Shhh! You’ll wake the baby!
Home-made excitement as
the race is on:
Who will control the tap?
Grown now, in a hose-less
bucket filled garden
further east
bare legs dance to hits past
Paint soaked hands apply
purity in white and
huge heaving generous
swaths of optimistic yellow
as she mutters her mantra,
with a childlike innocent:
‘Sunshine Days are Coming’