“Hephaestus – God of the Anvil and
Forge”
(Acrylic) 90x120cm
ABOUT THIS PAINTING:
This painting is one in a series of
paintings called “In the Image of Goddesses”.
The series was shown at an exhibition of the same name in Brisbane,
Australia. The theme of the exhibition
was to honour those aspects of myself that are personified by the classical
Greek deities. This pantheon of deities
comprises all the varied characteristics that are displayed by humanity. Therefore I have taken most of the major
female Goddesses and depicted those aspects that they celebrate, as aspects of
myself – thus exploring my own personality traits. This is not so very unlike the Personality
Tests of today, such as the MMPI-2RF (Minnosota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory) which identify personality structure.
I also included a few male Gods in the
series because according to the psychiatrist Jung, each person embodies some
characteristics of their opposite gender.
The painting discussed here is about Hephaestus - God of Fire, Metalworking, Stone masonry, and
the Art of Sculpture. Hephaestus
is to the male gods as the Goddess Athena is to the females, for he gives skill
to mortal artists and was believed to have taught humans the arts. I chose him as representing my creativity.
Hephaestus was married to the Goddess Aphrodite.
He was believed to also have great
healing powers which are similar to my therapeutic abilities. During the best period of Grecian art,
Hephaestus was characterised by his hammer and anvil. I have depicted the anvil in this painting –
can you see it?
Artistic techniques used in the
painting:
Could
this painting be loosely said to fall into the genre of Portraits? I
think that it could. It does attempt to
represent aspects of a person – myself.
Also it is an abstract representation of a God. In the recent exhibition “Portrait of Spain –
Masterpieces from the Prada” held at the Queensland Art Gallery, the painting
of King Philip IV of Spain by Velazquez (1635) is depicting the King as the God
Mars. That particular painting would be
classified as a portrait. Therefore I
would suggest that my painting of “Hephaestus” also falls into the genre of a
portrait.
Of course the style is Abstract
Expressionism. This movement comprises
many styles but shared several characteristics. The works are usually abstract;
they emphasized freedom of emotional expression, technique, and execution; they
display a single unified, undifferentiated field, network, or other image in
unstructured space; and the canvases are large.
The colours used
for “Hephaestus” are complimentary and the pallet limited to blue and orange
(plus white and black). A restricted
pallet enables the artist to create more congruence and harmony in the overall
colour scheme.
The tone is
low to mid-tone with medium contrast.
The form is
flat and abstract with flat planes of colour.
I allude to the anvil which is a symbol for Hephaestus. This can be seen in the pale dusty orange
image in the upper centre of the painting.
This is the most prominent feature of the picture and honours his
creative powers as well as mine.
The
composition is static, flat and balanced which is typical of much of my art
work.
Having
studied psychology for many years, I tend to put a psychological bent on a lot
of things, and when I completed my Masters Degree in Expressive Art Therapy,
this line of thought was further developed.
So it is to be expected that many of my paintings originate from a
psychological perspective. Psychology
has been monumental in changing humanity since its inception more than 100
years ago and will continue to do so in the future. Much of the visual imagery we see in the mass
media and advertising has been scrutinized by psychologists to influence the
behaviour of the viewer. Are you aware
of that? If not, start looking – it’s not
hard to see.
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