The Tarot Series 4

10. Up in Smoke (The Pope)

(The hollowness of religion)

Oil on canvas 56 x 72cm (2024)

INFLUENCES

The Prince by Machiavelli. (1961). The Prince was based on Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI.

Purple, papal,
bullish prose.
Sated, certainty.
Keys long forgotten.
Burnt by fire.
Consumed in smoke.

11. Throwing a little light on the subject (The Fool)

Oil on Canvas 30 x 40 cm (2025)

INFLUENCES

Theme Tunes

 ‘Dancing with the Moonlit Knight’ by Genesis from Selling England by the Pound (1973).

“Can you tell me where my country lies said the Unifaun to his true loves eyes?”

 ‘In Search of England’ by Barclay James Harvest XII (1978).

“Lost and drowned we’’ll wait til England’s found again!

 ‘The Greater Trumps’ by Charles Williams. (1932). Williams has a very interesting take on the Fool in this novel. It moves around.

 Hexagram IV of the I Ching. 

Innocence, the beginning of an adventure, beginner’s mind.

12. In the Balance (Justice)

Oil on Canvas 30 x 40 cm (2025)

INFLUENCES

Gods of Ancient Egypt by Barbara Watterson (1984).

“ Maat was the personification of Truth and Justice. She was depicted by Egyptian artists as a woman wearing an ostrich plume on her head. The feather was used in the Judgement of the Dead, when it was weighed in a balance against the heart of the deceased person undergoing the judgement to see if they had lived their life in conformity with truth and justice”.