Hi everyone. Welcome to my first post of the year and I hope that you having a great 2016 so far.I have finished the first painting of this year and the second in a group of pieces that I have been developing for some time. Here I described how I came to create these images and some of the ideas behind them. In that post I summarized my intent for the work as "metaphor for meditation and contemplation, for mindfulness and deep awareness and hope that the experience for the viewer will be of the peace and balance that comes from these things." The title is Peace and it is oil on canvas, 18x24". It has been said that all conflict in the world is, in truth, man's inner conflict that is projected outward. This is the idea I was most thinking about while painting. There are many wise people who speak about the antidote to struggle and strife in the world is the cultivation of peace inside of individuals. As I worked, this painting came to embody the moment when, at long last, one gives up looking outside of themselves for peace and gives in to the realization the only place to achieve it is within themselves.
As well, in this piece I moved away from using naturalistic colour. I want the paintings to speak about inner psychological space and to that end I am experimenting with palettes that have as a priority emotional and dreamlike moods, deliberately unnatural by materialist standards. Of course, as always, more about these ideas to come in future work and posts.
I am very excited for the opening this month of the new Jarvis Hall Gallery. He has moved just south of downtown Calgary and you can find all you need to know about finding it here on his Facebook page. This painting will be there on display for the next couple of weeks.Congratulations Jarvis Hall Gallery!