Face detail in earth pigments, John Lyons

That constant urge
        to create—to re-present
the world around us
        upon stretched cloth
that grows in the fields
        daubed with silica and clay
with manganese
        and hydrated iron oxide

We carry these pigments
        in our bones
we who have sprung
        from the very bones
of the earth
        all the hardness
and the softness
        of our bodies
and our eyes
        devouring everything
we see
        shape and colour
texture and weight
        our lives a constant
interpretation
        of what it means
to be and to live
        and to love

John Lyons

               Face, John Lyons (40 x 40 cm, oil on canvas)

I know this face
        from somewhere
those piercing eyes
        looking out from the canvas

There have been subtle shifts
        since it last appeared
alterations in the tone—
        the cadmium red sharpened
the yellow ochre lightened
        the titanium white
slightly buffed to lower
        the intensity

I think of this study
        as a field or a terrain
out of which an image
        emerges organically
much as though
        it were alive

I like the uneven
        surface of the land
the imperfections
        the different shades
and tones

a face from the earth
        and of the earth
dust of my dust
        which once was

John Lyons

       Land, John Lyons (40 x 40 cm, oil on canvas)

Think of it thus
as a garden
as a small plot of land
the soil recently
turned in preparation
for a new crop

In the artist’s mind
the seeds may already
have been sown

Who knows what
may appear—a portrait
of a face once beloved
or a landscape remembered
with affection or
some other grand gesture

Earth colours
will be applied —
this too is the work
of sunlight
and what is born here
will live forever

John Lyons