Cyril loved colours and flowers. They appear is all sorts of guises in his work.
He loved his own garden which was a riot of colourful wildly abundant flowers of many varieties.
From traditional water colours to stylised designs a floral influence can often be seen in his work.
Geometry comes from from the Ancient Greek is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space that are related with distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures.
Cyril loved geometry and composed and painted a series of patterns in a variety of mediums. Setting himself challenges that took a lot of working out and patience in their execution he compiled a very colourful collection.
As we face another year with many problems to solve it is evident in Cyril's work that he was a great problem solver and liked to set himself challenges in his work.
He had a fascination with geometry and perspective as can be seen in many of his pieces. From fantasy landscapes to complex geometric patterns he had dexterity, imagination, patience and a very steady hand.
Christmas was a time Cyril absolutely loved. He used to make his own tree decorations and ones to decorate the house. It certainly was an Aladdins cave of colour and light.
When he worked at the Directorate of Overseas Surveys he always decorated the canteen there for the wonderful parties that were held for the staff and their families.
These reindeer and this Christmas scene were a typical decoration showing off his skills.
Today, on 30th October 2011, nine years ago Cyril left this earth to be, as he described it, 'blasted into outer space'.
Close to Halloween, whose origin dates back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, this day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death.
Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. Cyril's fantasy world could be construed as somewhere between this world and another and we remember him fondly for all his eccentricities.
