The word ‘posy’ is derived from the word ‘poetry’, which is itself derived from the latin word poesis.

This series of ‘Votive Offerings’ are paintings of posies of wild flowers made in Orkney, with the addition of hand written lines of abridged poetry by Kathleen Raine and Norman McCaig. The lines chosen reflect the sense of place and nature where the posies were made and left, and the memories and feelings evoked by flowers themselves. The paintings are watercolour and acrylic on gesso board.

‘clouds travel on the winds through wide skies, skies wide and beautiful and deep,

the wind blows over flowers, the sweet wind blows’

‘in the sea reflected sky, in the sky there shines a sun, in the sun a bird of gold’

(Lines selected from Kathleen Raine poems for Votive Offering No. 105 – in the sun a bird of gold’)