The Unique Essence of Spring

Rebecca Carroll's strips away everything to get to the soul. And yet the hallmark of her paintings is their variety and richness. Uninterrupted by the simply graphic. 'Green-Wood Promise' has strong overtones of a fascinating close-up of the bark of a tree.

Carroll gets beyond the everyday that is so often tawdry. Aspects of nature can be awesome beyond words. 'Herald Spring' shows freshness and intensity of colour that takes the breath away.

'St Brigid's Milk' tells of the child Brigid giving away all of the family's milk, and being rewarded with a super abundance, shown under the saint's sign. The 7 stones represent Brigid's cows.

Concepts that are concurrently utterly simple and at the same time are beyond comprehension. The number three, expressed in 'Enter the Trinity', is a concept beyond the human mind, and yet expressed by three flowers or three firey ?? rods is in the realm of the youngest child.

So often words are not only inadequate but they are a barrier to communication. Is 'Speaking Silences 4' reflecting images of the mind? Or might it be the inferno that is middle earth, topped by the freshness of Spring?

Is 'Three Souls' an impressionist picture of the earliest stages after conception in the liquid world that is the womb? Or are the souls soaring to another existence after death?

'Heavenly Mansions' suggest a view through a telescope of a section of a Mars-like place set against the endlessness of space. It shows a living, individuality and pleasant warmth that would make this a place to strive for.

Because impressionist abstract painting has no definite coundaries it has an edge in reflecting the endless variety of a life. Texture and colour in 'Painted Soul' suggests countless experiences and vitality.

Does 'Pollination 11' have overtones of Michelangelo's 'Creation'? The electricity of that magical moment when new life first happens is uniquely captured in this joining of the male and female in pollination.

There are images in nature that are more wonderful than anything ever conceived by the human mind. 'Speaking Silences 3' might be a picture from nature or from the imagination. But surely what is important is the riveting composition and execution?

- Frank Lewis