The Green Man’s Hat is a painting about hope and life.

In British folklore the Green Man is sometimes also called Robin Goodfellow, or Jack-in-the-Green. Shakespeare called him Puck. He – or someone very like him – occurs in many cultures throughout the world, down the ages. His leafy face can often be seen on pub signs, or carved into the stones of Christian churches, but he goes back way beyond Jesus. He turns up in Roman and Egyptian art, and I suspect, into prehistory. Clearly, the human spirit has always needed such a figure! I certainly do – he’s a figure I periodically return to in my art. He represents rebirth, growth and coming of Spring, and what’s not to like about that?

Every May, the people of Hastings, UK, throw a Jack-in-the-Green Man May Day festival. They celebrate the woodland spirit, with dancing, music, drinking and dressing up.

In my painting I have painted the Green Man’s Hat with the sort of thing I imagine he would decorate his titfer with. There’s a ivy, oak leaves, a fern frond unfurling, dog roses, honeysuckle and bluebells. There’s a wood mouse, a common frog, a scarlet tiger moth, and a tiny brown hare runs up one of his antlers.  A song thrush sings, as a swallow swoops by, just returned for the summer to breed. The sky the snows of winter retreat and the moon travels across the sky towards the sun in the merry month of May.

I hope you like him and can feel his joyous, puckish spirit, bursting with life and bringing warmer, lighter, longer days.