Conceptual Paintings for Illuminate

These conceptual paintings for Illuminate were mostly completed in the last few weeks before the opening of the exhibition. The first painting here is titled As I Walk.

As I Walk $1350
Oil on canvas 84 * 84 cm

This is a mixed media painting about the journey through life and its various trials and tests. We all face difficulties and sometimes it is just necessary to ignore everything that is going on around us and just power forward. The silhouettes represent any person walking through life. The colours of the surroundings are the distractions which beset us and sway us from the path that leads to peace and happiness. The giant Chinese dragon’s head hovers above the walkers, but is tied to a different realm and can’t really hurt those he preys on unless they let him. The paw prints offer an alternative to walking through it all.

After the Fire $155
Oil on canvas 32.5 * 22.5 cm

The second of the conceptual paintings for Illuminate is called bushfire. There is no deep and meaningful agenda here. The painting is a study of light with yellow and red dominating. Yet the purple behind the tree gives the viewer a cool spot to rest his eye. The painting is optimistic because the tree has remained intact despite the passing bushfire.

Personal Formulations $1450 Oil on canvas 100 * 100 cm

The third of the conceptual paintings for Illuminate includes more silhouettes of people hanging from clothes lines in space. The silhouettes suggest that we perceive people in ways that are simplified for convenience sake. It is often the kind of mind that categorises people as stereotypes which also views the world as a kind of movie peopled with characters that are basically one dimensional. Here the only figure with substance is the central dancer – a kind of fantasy figure that could be the projection of a person’s wish to become someone great, or possibly an object of desire.

All three paintings have been added to the website.

Illuminate Paintings

Here are some of the Illuminate Paintings which have been added to the collection on this website.

Revelation $6000 Oil on canvas 120 * 165 cm

The first of these Illuminate paintings is Revelation. This is a large painting painted using a variety of techniques. The colours are quite sombre in comparison to my usual palette.

What exactly is a Revelation? It is a heart and gut felt understanding of something which one has probably already known for a while. However, with the revelation comes a deeper understanding which can be life changing and in the case of the painting even life saving. Here the revelation is almost like a resurrection. The understanding comes when the subject is buried in quicksand or the earth and emerges at the point of understanding.

The air he now breathes is the revelation and it has given him new life. I wanted the drama of the painting to emphasise the crucial nature of a true revelation. Getting the sand to move up the hand and wrist was difficult. I had to mix loose quick brushwork (to create the illusion of movement) with the need to make the sand, rock and dirt look real.

Blue $1250 Oil on canvas
100 * 75 cm

The second of the Illuminate paintings is titled Blue. Blue is a modest sized painting which definitely has a fantasy edge to it. The landscape is serene and peaceful. Yet it becomes a base for the powerful, confronting and almost soaring sky. There is no sad mood here. Instead the blue is the colour of freedom, imagination and boldness. The clouds on the right are almost like an angel with its arms outstretched.

Geo – Abstract $135
Oil on canvas 20 * 20 cm

The third of the Illuminate paintings is titled Geo – Abstract. It is a purely experimental painting where thin layers of paint create shafts of light across forms that absorb, deflect or ignore the light. This is a tiny painting and the first of a small series of similar works which I will be doing over the coming months.

All three of these paintings is contained within the gallery on the Conceptual Paintings page of this site.

New Paintings

Here are some new paintings which were produced for the Illuminate exhibition.

Tulips $1150
Oil on canvas 100 * 75 cm

The first new painting is simply called Tulips. It celebrates the colour yellow and the way light plays with and enhances this colour in nature. I wanted these flowers to be both monumental but also intimate. The painting shows how the surrounding light can feed and nourish not only the flowers themselves but the beauty they project.

The tulips appear to be immersed by light, but at the same time appear to want to take off as if they are ready to fly on their own, because of the energy the light imparts to them.

Glorious Leaves $850 Oil on canvas 100 * 75cm

Glorious Leaves is another new painting where a powerful light dominates and enhances the features of the motifs. The leaves are backlit, with the light slightly to the left of them. The play of light and shadows created by the layers of leaves, creates exciting patterns that add life to the painting and the leaves themselves. Depth is created by the dark corner (bottom right) and the highlights on the left side of the painting. These leaves seem to be like a community. Just the way they sit together suggests that they are in unison with one another and the light which permeates them gives them a strong and confident air.

Garden with Angelets $950 90* 90 cm Oil on canvas

The third new painting is titled Garden with Angelets. This painting is about fun and life. The inclusion of the Angelets helps add a fantasy element to the painting. The flowers seem to be frolicking and there are little sparkling lights everywhere. The movement and general atmosphere of this painting is light and breezy. This painting could cheer just about any room with its colour and its light.

All three paintings have been added to the botanical paintings page of the site.

Illuminate Exhibition

There are only days till the Illuminate Exhibition and I am madly finishing off paintings by the dozen for it. It’s been a hot summer and the garage has not been forgiving. I’ve kept my energy up by drinking copious amounts of water and having short power naps in the heat of the afternoon.

Illuminate, $1950 Oil on canvas 100 * 100 cm

The Illuminate Exhibition will open on Thursday, 24th March at 6:00PM with a gala opening with music by Kulturithmik, drinks and refreshments.

The outlay of the Professional Centre is varied with a long winding hall which traverses the centre from entry to the end. There are four open sections (the foyer, the conference room, the stairwell and another foyer at the back). These sections will display the largest paintings.

The Illuminate exhibition will showcase a collection of works exploring the qualities, nature and ideas surrounding the concept of illumination. These works will explore all aspects of illumination like light and its many facets, properties, and characters – those things which light reveals and clarifies, including truth, wisdom, love, revelation – light in nature, in flowers, leaves, sky and the landscape – the light of the city- the light of life.

I’m expecting a big night with lots of attendees and lots of fun, music and laughter.

I’m currently finishing off most of the works with glazes and little touch ups. The sizes of the paintings will vary from very small to quite large. Some of the large paintings I expect will get some very positive responses. A few of these I think are quite spectacular. Not all of them will be as colourful as the signature paintings (the peacock ‘Illuminate’), but all of them will engage the viewer and I hope get them thinking about some of the important things in life.

The exhibition will continue from the 24th March through to the 8th of April and will be open on Easter Saturday and Monday. The Professional Centre is open from 9:00AM to 5:00PM Mondays to Friday.

Hope to see you there.

Hieronymus Bosch.

The Garden of Earthly Delights.

The central panel of Hieronymus Bosch’s the Garden of Earthly Delights is the panel of the triptych’s title.

This painting, unlike the first panel, is littered with frenetic activity. The figures are all nudes – some sensually engaged with others. Others simply play, engage in sports or cavort in the garden with companions, animals or imaginary creatures. Are these people ‘shameless’ or merely exhibiting an ‘adolescent sexual curiosity’?

In the centre foreground,  one of the largest figures in the painting gives us a clue. The foremost female figure of a group of females is adorned with two cherries – a medieval symbol of pride. To the left a man lustfully drinks from an exotic flagon and behind the group a man and woman lie encased in a giant mussel shell (a symbol of sexuality, carnality and lust). The two concentric circles in the centre (the pool and the circle of figures astride animals) may allude to eternity but more likely allude to the infinite cycle of sin (This theme has been developed in our time by the Chapman brothers – I will talk about their works in coming weeks). Yet strangely, the horizon line of the centre panel continues on from the left panel, suggesting a link between the two. The link would seem to be that both of these scenes occur on our world – in this universe. In contrast the last panel is clearly located in Hell (see in coming days).

Overall the three panels allegorically lead from the first to the second to the third.

The composition of the middle panel is balanced but quite open giving the figures freedom to move and do as they wish. This aligns itself with the idea that despite the fact that God has ordered the world perfectly for our benefit, we are still left free to make our own choices and live in the way we choose to live.

The third panel of the triptych will describe visually what the consequences of making the wrong choices are.

The Garden of Earthly Delights

Time Unbound, my masters thesis explored the different interpretations of Heaven and Hell, eternity and infinity which have been created over the last four centuries. Another work which intrigued me in its highly personal and individual interpretation of Heaven and Hell is Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights.

Here I will describe the first of the three paintings in the triptych: Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

The Garden of Earthly Delights is a triptych by Hieronymus Bosch (1450 – 1516).

Two tall rectangular side pieces flank a square centrepiece, each painted in great detail, suggesting a narrative spanning from creation to the end of time itself. The left panel depicts God presenting Eve to Adam in the Garden of Eden. The central panel is a vast panorama of fantastic creatures, exotic oversized fruit, weird stone formations and is peopled with socially flamboyant nudes. The right panel is a hellscape portraying the torturous horrors of damnation.

The Garden of Earthly Delights: Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

The Garden of Earthly Delights: Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Hieronymus Bosch, (1490 – 1510) Oil on panel

This is the first and left panel in the triptych. It is the simplest in design and the most calm in nature, but it still shows us the complexity of Bosch’s concepts at play.

In the centre, Jesus presents Eve to Adam. Birds, elephants, giraffes and every other kind of animal (some imaginary) populate the garden, which is characterised by green lawns, rolling hills, pools and an open ‘lightness’ symbolising purity and goodness. His figures of Adam and Eve exude both innocence and sexuality.

Even though this is the tamest of Bosch’s three panels it is still riddled with enigmas. A cat runs off with a mouse suggesting that not all is perfect in this garden. The imagery is not restricted to biblical or other traditional textual sources, but utilises Bosch’s imagination, a sign of the Renaissance to come.

In the left panel, it may be that the inclusion of fantastical creatures, the unsavoury-looking crab based tower in the centre and the cat eating the mouse, left of Adam (such an act would not have occurred in the original Garden of Eden, according to Christian theology), suggest that temptation is already present in the garden. It is most likely that the continued horizon line shows that the first two panels are located at some place on the Earth, whereas the third panel is located in another dimension altogether.

While this first painting in the triptych is seemingly located in Earth, its fantastic elements suggest that it is also a kind of idealised version of some of the spiritual elements present in the Garden of Eden.

I will write about the other 2 panels in the coming days. If you have any questions about anything just email me.

Time Unbound

Time Unbound is the title of my Master of Arts (Honours) thesis which I completed a short while ago. I am in the process of deciding how I will proceed with the publishing of the work. In total it is over 60,000 words long and discusses and explores the representation of eternity throughout the ages in art.

Winter Landscape with Church

The above image Winter Landscape with Church by Caspar David Friedrich (1811) is one of over 100 art works discussed throughout the thesis.

This work shoes a tiny figure leaning against a rock, his crutches left in the snow suggesting he is done with traversing the endless countryside – that it has gotten the better of him. Yet there is still hope. The rock may be seen as a place of rest, and the meticulously depicted pine trees mirror the outline of the true place of respite not far away, the church. Like many of Friedrich’s paintings, there is an inner silence and tranquillity which invite the viewer to experience the peace the figure may be feeling. The grey mist may conceal much of the landscape but it has the effect of rendering it endless, its power and vastness not only insurmountable, but also mysterious and unfathomable. Behind the church a faint glow of red could be either sunrise (a sign that salvation is never far away) or sunset (a warning to the pilgrim to not tarry for too long before the night comes).

Eternity is a place of rest here. The mist signifies its mystery and also its endlessness. It also suggests that eternity is not of this material world, but rather a different place where the spirits of both God and man co-habit.

Winter Landscape is a painting of hope and sanctuary.

Untitled 835

In contrast, the image below is a modern work by Australian artist Louise Hearman called Untitled 835 (2000).

The quiet nightmarish world depicted in this oil painting employs dramatic contrasts and an eerie misty lighting to evoke a world of dark mystery which could be interpreted as a form of Hell.

Here a boy looks out at the viewer from behind a wall of flame like grass. Hearman’s light sometimes seems to come from within the depicted subjects themselves giving an otherworldly quality to the subjects and a dream-like aura to the works. The children in her paintings are not quite children.

The grass allude to the flames of Hell, while the boy’s otherworldly inner light suggests a soulless figure, a ghost of a person.

This is not the blatant hellish horror of Hieronymus Bosch’s paintings or the violent, gory  images of a modern film depicting Hell come to Earth. It is a more familiar Hell – otherworldly, but somehow near – almost under our skin.

Time Unbound also discusses the different approaches to deciphering the topic of eternity – secular, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Moslem, scientific, new age and personal. I will periodically post some of the more interesting parts of my thesis in the coming months and if anyone has any enquiries about Time Unbound then I would be more than happy to answer any of those questions.

Cityscape

This cityscape is not yet finished, but is being posted as an example of what will be coming in my upcoming exhibition ‘Illuminate’, which is to be held at the Professional Centre on the 24th of March 2016.

Cityscape

This is large painting uses shafts of light to change and play with the various forms and structures within the painting. Different parts of the painting shift and shimmer because of these shafts of light. The illumination of this cityscape is part of the life of this city and yet transports the viewer’s perceptions to another place beyond that of the city. There is at least one other cityscape in production at the moment.

illuminate

Illuminate.

This is a design of the poster I’ll be putting up for the exhibition.

The exhibition at the Professional Centre will be a gala event with food, refreshments, music, art and lots of bubbles. I am working on about sixty paintings at present for this exhibition and hope to create a variety of works ranging from nebulous surreal explorations of illumination to sparkling garden paintings decorated by an imaginary light (or lights) which transform the picture into something fantastic.

In the coming weeks I will be posting images as they become completed and I also hope to put up a few new musical pieces.

The Website

This website has not been as dynamic as it should have been in the previous year or two. I will be keeping it liquid from now on and am hoping viewers will respond with some positive comments. I hope to write more blog posts, add new images and music pieces and maybe add some stories in the coming months.

I also hope to start up a shop for open edition prints soon. With the shop, paypal will be available (it already is available for buyers) and I will probably restrict the size of the prints to about 2 sizes to choose from.

If you have any questions about prints or paintings contact through the website email.