The Terrible Rain

Comments

A very poignant and emotional painting Alix beautifully executed.

Posted by Val Kenyon on Mon 04 Aug 17:19:37

Very evocative and a super sensitive painting.

Posted by Thea Cable on Mon 04 Aug 17:39:31

Thank you so much, Val and Thea. The main idea had been with me for quite a while and then was developing as I got stuck into it with fresh ideas popping up all the time!

Posted by Alix Baker on Mon 04 Aug 17:45:14

A touching and heart felt memorial to a brave, band of brothers. A wonderful concept and composition Alix. I was given the general service medal of sgt, Duncan Ferguson of the 8th bat. Black watch for a birthday present (odd I know, but it's my kind of thing) he was killed in action on the 14th July 1916 (which is my birthday-not the 1916 part) in the battle for high wood. He's the first person I think of on my birthday, and I'm very proud to remember him.

Posted by Fiona Phipps on Mon 04 Aug 21:42:47

Fiona, I think that is a fantastic way to remember someone or their generation. How enterprising! I have my great-uncle's DSO. He was killed in 1917 in Mesopotamia. I also have his cufflinks and photo album part of which shows his service in Waziristan which looks now just as it did then. He never married but somehow I've always felt close to him. Strange.

Posted by Alix Baker on Mon 04 Aug 23:39:31

Funny how their spirits reach to us across time, and who knows what other frontiers, to touch our own lives. The only connection there is between Duncan and myself is that he enlisted in Greenock which is where my mother was born. He died over forty years before I was born, he was 23 year old.

Posted by Fiona Phipps on Tue 05 Aug 10:57:33

Lovely work Alix and a fitting tribute.

Posted by Frank Bingley on Fri 08 Aug 17:41:28

Thank you, Frank.

Posted by Alix Baker on Sat 09 Aug 11:04:19

Thoughtful, provocative and well depicted.

Posted by Derek Snowdon on Thu 04 Feb 10:53:56

Hang on Studio Wall

13/04/2015

3 likes

1.271k views

The Terrible Rain This is a young regular soldier (indicated by the pre-utility pattern of his uniform) who has yet to see active service: the country has experienced more years of peace than has been known for a very, very long time. Perhaps he is on manoeuvres and, with a sense of youthfulness and summer fun, he has picked a poppy for his forage cap and one to tuck into his faithful mount’s accoutrement. The vertical and horizontal brush strokes, just visible, suggest that the warp and weft of the fabric of those nations affected by the First World War will never be the same. Those same vague brush strokes below the silhouettes also suggest the wall of a trench with vertical ladders and horizontal firing platforms. There are some thinner vertical ‘dribbles’ like tears running down from the ‘trench’. The soldier’s and horse’s feet are deliberately slightly blurring into the ground as if they are going on a journey that will absorb them into the earth itself. The colours of the Armed Forces are incorporated into the picture in various ways, including that of the future Royal Air Force formed towards the end of the war by an amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. The poppies are few in the foreground but gradually increase until those among the silhouetted figures are numerous, symbolising the death toll to come. Wearing their poppies, this young soldier and his horse will not be among those returning home.

About the Artist

Alix Baker

After art school in London I spent several years in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Busy jobs suspended my art side and eventually I left to devote more time to it. For the greater part of my art career I was one of the UK's leading military artists specialising in military dress through the…

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