19 - Orinocho and the bag of tomatoes

I started this painting and had to paint over it as it looked like a bag of tomatoes and couldn’t connect to it. So I worked away at it for another few days on and off. Then I realised there was something like a womble appearing. Wombles, tomatoes ??? whats going on. I remembered my cousin as a kid came on holiday and she had a Womble called Orinocho. Then I remembered the Sunday drives with Dad. Once when our cousins were visiting we went for a drive out around the Blessington lakes and usually Dad bought curly wurlys or ice creams or other treats as we saw it. This particular day our uncle came out of the shop with a big brown bag which had us all excited. ‘Dip you hand in the bag and have one’ he said. Out came a big red tomato. Our faces all fell to the floor. What!! Why has this memory come out in a painting. I wasn’t even thinking about that time.

‘Wombles are fictional pointy nosed furry creatures created by Elizabeth Beresford and originally appearing in children’s novels from 1968 onwards. She came up with the name Womble because her daughter couldn’t pronounce Wimbledon and kept saying Wombledon. This inspired her to create the characters and thereon began the story. Wombles live in burrows where they aim to help the environment by collecting and recycling rubbish in creative ways. They supposedly live in every country in the world, Beresford’s stories are primarily concerned with the lives of the inhabitants of the burrow on Wimbledon Common in London. They get a name when they come of age by looking through Great Uncle Bulgarias atlas until they find one that suits then.

The word womble comes from Wombwell in South Yorkshire named with the Old English byname Wamba meaning ’belly’.

Their motto is “make good use of bad rubbish.” This friendly message was a reflection of the growing environmental movement of the 1970s.

I know all of this might sound like woffle to you but I tend to go down rabbit holes a lot and find it fascinating where they lead me.