artycelia.com

  Having been brought up in the sixties and seventies I think the hippie outlook on life served me well. I can still make great Daisy Chains, Pom Poms and Cats' Cradles. I was always encouraged to read and constantly had my nose in a book. Enid Blyton taught me not to be afraid of spiders with her stories of Aaron the spider who was really a prince. I have infuriated my daughters over the years by my insistence that that huge hairy eight-legged specimen in the bath was a prince trapped in a spider's body. They learned from an early age how to use a pint glass and a piece of card to let the arachnid out of the window. Same with bees and wasps,' Buzz, buzz, buzz busy bee, busy bee, buzz if you like but don't sting me.' (I made that one up) Walking around the park would have me singing 'There once was an ugly duckling....' although I certainly didn't read that book to my own children repeatedly, like my mum did to me (I still bear a grudge) As a child I pla

                                                                                                          (Copyright. Celia Turner)  I painted these sunflowers a few years ago onto a special edition of The Times. The painting seems horribly poignant now. The sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine. The beautiful sunflower takes her name from Clytie, a water nymph who turns into a sunflower after grieving the loss of her beloved Apollo. The mythological symbolism is that Clytie (in her form as a sunflower) is always facing the sun looking for Apollo's chariot to return that they might rekindle their love. The sunflower grows tall and moves to face the life -giving rays of the sun and is often used as the symbol of spiritual faith and worship.