The green fields of France

ARTIST Lyn Butchart was inspired by The Green Fields of France by The Fureys, to paint a magnificent work of art that will raise funds for Afghanistan troops.

COLOUR OF SUFFERING: Grafton artist Lyn Butchart with her watercolour painting, Flanders Fields, at the South Grafton District Ex-Servicemens Club.

ARTIST Lyn Butchart's uncles, grandfathers and cousins went off to war. She lived through heartache, she saw suffering and she felt pain.

But then she heard The Green Fields of France by The Fureys, she was suddenly inspired to paint a magnificent work of art, to remember those who have fallen and those who are still fighting.

"The song is about an old grandfather sitting on someone's grave saying: 'Why did he die for no reason'," Ms Butchart said. "When I heard the song, I knew I had to paint it." Three weeks later, the giant painting of poppies was completed. That was in 1994.

Today, the painting is on display in the South Grafton Ex-Servicemen's Club foyer, accompanied by a poem.

Ms Butchart said she hoped to get the painting made into prints which she would sell and donate part of the money to those fighting in Afghanistan.

While war is not a regular theme in Ms Butchart's art, she said she was beginning to tap into an aspect of her creativity that had interested her for many years.

"This is another side of me," she said. "I've always wanted to do it, but it's always been put in the background as I focused on the pretty stuff. The next lot I do will be of the soldiers who died in the helicopter crash."

Originally published as The green fields of France