This fall-winter season, it feels like we've had endless rain. Not so, say official sources, who do say, officially, that last month was Vancouver's warmest December on record. So when the sun shines, and everyone runs outside to dance in the streets (one of my fantasies), it feels like spring will be here soon.
Riding the bus in late December, I sat across from a man who seemed to be travelling unfamiliar territory – shown here, with the blank look my eraser tool has thoughtfully provided for him.
His timing was perfect – just as I was mulling over a green theme for my Spectral series. No doubt about it: This was The Green Man of Celtic (and other) mythology.
However it all came about, The Green Man is also known as The Foliate Man – an architectural motif of a male face surrounded with foliage. Scroll down in this link to see some marvellous examples from historic European buildings. I don't think I knew any of this when I modelled this small head some years ago.
All right: Onward with the Spectral painting. Photos of my early layouts vanished in my laptop's end-of-year breakdown – but those are usually of interest only to me. Here's a mid-stage in the process.
And here's the final: "The Green Man Takes a Bus to the City" – Spectral Series, copyright 2025.
To wrap things up, I went searching for a green painting by a known artist and came across this half-familiar example:
Well, if that isn't………no, it ISN'T George Washington.
It's a contemporary of his, William Bayard, and the paintings are by the same artist, Gilbert Stuart.
Finally, to show that there is a whiff of green even when it snows, here's my back yard with the only real snow we've had here this year – all melted two hours later.
