The secret gallery’s blog

 

The `7 veils of illusion´ Buddhist concept, was the catapult for me to start making a new body of work. The idea that there are  7 veils of illusion to go through, before becoming fully awake or enlightened, felt like an interesting departure point to paint from. Somehow it reminded me of how I feel when I paint; allowing the unconscious to become visible and reveal some of the thoughts and feelings that are passing. I see painting as a meditative process, a journey. You can have an idea before you start but that idea can change; metamorphose into something very different. Sometimes images seem to emerge out of the canvas or surface like Genies! As if they had just landed from space and wish to be painted! They are ideas not necessarily mine, just ideas that are in the ether; as we are all connected.

In 7 veils of illusion 1, the 7 crescent shapes which are  reminiscent of  flames and birds, are both: representing the 7 illusions and figures going on a journey through life. They are connected to the sky and the earth or heaven and matter. In the lower section of the painting which represents our earthly nature there are animals emerging; possibly cows, bulls, goats and horses. Our daughter said `goodnight cows´ to it, just after I had painted it!

In 7 trees, the trees symbolise the mirroring between sky and earth, with their roots going deep into the earth for nourishment and support and their branches reaching up into the sky. Trees are extremely important to us, I am fascinated by them and have painted and drawn them since I started drawing and painting, trees and horses seem to be a constant theme for me.

In `Floating´ the crescent shapes have turned into boats and float on water, for me, it is where the rivers go into the sea. However I don’t believe the work I make will speak the same to everybody, I think that every piece of art changes depending on who is observing it; we will all see something different in it. The sea, rivers and water are also important to us. The boats represent our journey through life, maybe, and passing through illusions and finding  some more! 

Today I started working again on a small canvas just seeing what would come out, it looked very different to my my other work at the start but suddenly the previous crescent shapes had turned into octagonal shapes with colourful blobs inside, when I counted them there were 7, this was totally unconscious, I guess the series is not over yet!