During January and February, I've painted the myriad colours in my cold seemingly colourless backyard. The design indicates the many rhythms of the Universe from the great breaths of the early Universe to the screeching beat of X-ray light. The colours are the terracotta pots, black compost, vivid green shoots, the deep green at the heart of a bay tree, a shadow on a trellis, a vivid red leaf tip or a piece of sky; all have their origins in the big bang and the stars.
"Backyard Universe" detail, oil on canvas.
It has been a pleasure to be working on a book for children about the vast range of rhythms in the Universe. We have just completed the first draft. Here is a sketch of a young Galileo Galilei who discovered over 400 years ago that a pendulum sways to a certain beat according to its length.
Galileo in the cathedral, pencil sketch on paper.
Lastly, I attach this lovely image of rhythms that I found in Michael Marder's book 'Condensed Matter Physics' . They are the "calculated energy bands of aluminium", the x axis is the wave vector and y axis energy in eV.
