I made this final drawing in a series of 3 in response to Kate Garrett’s poem ‘Warnings’. I’ve shared the previous pieces on this blog. I knew this final drawing was important but wasn’t sure how to approach it. I went to the park to meditate today, not the graveyard this time, and stayed open to where this might take me. I knew I wanted to include trees and the hanging figure. The trees I had drawn at the graveyard last week that I thought I could use were on the wrong side linking back to the first drawing. So I decided to make the trees a loose interpretation of the position of the trees in the first ‘Warnings’ drawing, so it kind of followed on. The drawings of the crows came from the graveyard sketches made last week, so felt real. The hanging figure emerged then, and last of all the female protagonist. She came from an image of Francoise Gilot on the front of a book I have ‘Life with Picasso’. I know the image so well, she is walking along the beach under an umbrella held by the master shading her from the sun. The drawing is a very loose interpretation of that. She was the only woman to have left Picasso, I find her fascinating. I had thought she might be Julie Driscoll who I have been listening to recently, but no, it had to be Francoise. So that’s the story. I always stay open even in the middle of working and have no doubt the marks will say what I want them to.