As an artist always searching for new roses to paint and always hoping to find the perfect bloom, I am very aware of the flowering season and keep being surprised by the hardy bushes in my local neighbourhood which always seem to be producing one more bloom before the season is over.

So the words of Thomas Moore’s famous poem written in 1805 are often going through my head, well the first line, anyway.

(For the full poem see below)

Thomas Moore (1779 – 1852) was an Irish poet and was friends with fellow poets Byron and Shelley.

And my painting which is a framed A4 work on paper can be viewed as part of the A4 Art Australia exhibition on Herring Island which will be open to the public 11.30am – 4.30pm on the following dates: 21, 22, 28, 29 March & 4, 5 & 6 April 2015.

‘Tis the last rose of summer,
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone;
No flower of her kindred,
No rosebud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
Or give sigh for sigh.

I’ll not leave thee, thou lone one!
To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go, sleep thou with them.

Thus kindly I scatter,
Thy leaves o’er the bed,
Where thy mates of the garden
Lie scentless and dead.

So soon may I follow,
When friendships decay,
And from Love’s shining circle
The gems drop away.

When true hearts lie withered,
And fond ones are flown,
Oh! who would inhabit
This bleak world alone?