UNDERSTANDING ABSTRACT ART #71

“Aphrodite – Goddess of Creativity and Love”

In the Image of Goddesses Series

(Acrylic) 

Size: 90x120cm

ABOUT THIS PAINTING

 In my last post (#70) I discussed my painting of “Hephaestus – God of the Anvil and Forge”.  This week I will explain my painting of “Aphrodite – Goddess of Creativity and Love”.   Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus.  (Both these deities come from classical Greek myth).  This painting of Aphrodite is meant to symbolize my creative nature.  The painting discussed last week also was about my creativity but from a more masculine angle.

Aphrodite in classical Greek times was the Goddess of creativity and love, similar to Venus in the Roman era.  Central to my learning over the years, has been an understanding of the relationship between spirituality, sexuality and love.  As a painter I feel that it is important for me to keep all three in harmony and balanced in order for the creative process to flow.  As I age, I can look back over my life and see how these three aspirations play an important part in the way my life has unfolds. 

My recently published book “The Power of Creating” (in Hard Cover at cost or download free http://au.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3457759 ) gives an account of this in a 40 year retrospective of my art work.  It also gives insight into my creative and personal process.

Female sexuality is central to the allure of the Goddess Aphrodite.  My painting of her shows female sexuality and potential depicted as an ovum pulsating with life.

Artistic techniques used in the painting:

The oval shape is symbolic of female potency - the female life force given form – the egg.  Eggs, large and small, are all rounded and oval.  The form of an egg is one of the strongest of structures, though it looks fragile, beautiful and mysterious.  I attempt to capture in this painting that mystery which is symbolic of potential life.  

I have selected warm colours that are also soft and feminine.  The pinks, purples and apricots are balanced with the cooler aqua – an analogous pallet.  Low and mid-tones are used throughout and the composition is balanced by the strong red border, on the top and left side, and the large oval in the lower left.

Although I have used acrylic paint, I have applied it in glazes and have utilized line more than I normally do, so as to get a feeling of pulsating movement.  This represents the potential for life that an ovum holds.  However without the male counterpart there cannot be life.

In order to better understand what I am trying to convey in this post, my painting of Aphrodite should be read along with last week’s post (#70) on Hephaestus, her husband.  

Abstract art is the best way for me to convey the complex meaning behind my paintings.  Other paintings from “In the Image of Goddesses” series have been discussed in posts Nos.9, 15, 44, 62, and 63 (though this is not the complete set). The series represents this woman’s examination and exploration of herself, and in that respect, all the paintings in this series fall into the genre of portrait.  The overall series is an examination and honouring of myself and the whole series can be enjoyed in more lyrical detail in my book.  Have a look – its free to download.

http://www.buderimartstudio.com 

UNDERSTANDING ABSTRACT ART #70

“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.

http://www.buderimartstudio.com 

UNDERSTANDING ABSTRACT ART #62

“Persephone – The Rape and Abduction” 

(The Goddess Series)

(Acrylic) 

Size: 120x90cm

ABOUT THIS PAINTING:

Western civilization stems from classical Greek culture which has influenced our philosophical perspective up to the present time.  Freud the founder of Psychology alluded to Greek mythology when he discussed his theory.  Therefore we talk about the Oedipus complex, the life instinct as Eros and the death drive as Thanatos.  Aspects of his very influential theory are derived from some of the Greek myths which were complex stories about Gods and Goddesses and their interactions with humans.  In ancient times, these myths served as a guide for human behaviour by illustrating the consequences of these aberrant acts and highlight the good actions of heroes.  The myths also served to explain the unpredictability of nature.

Joseph Campbell showed that the ancient myths are still pertinent in today’s society having been re-structured into present day myths such as “Star Wars” and the like.  Therefore it appears that human behave and its myths have not changed very much over the millennia - three thousand years on and we still seek out heroes and heroines.

It was with that in mind that I painted and exhibited a series of artworks that examined these aspects of our humanity that are characterized by the classical Greek myths.  The art exhibition was called “In the Images of Goddesses” and each painting celebrated an aspect of my own character, as represented by a Greek deity. I have reviewed a number of these in this blog site (see blog posts Nos. 9/13/15/44).

 

“The Rape & Abduction of Persephone” has been frequently painted in Western art.  The paintings often show Hades carrying Persephone off and the subject of the artwork is often trivialized by Persephone being depicted as being in rapture and ecstasy.  This is because much of Western art in the past has been sponsored by men.  These wealthy patrons would prefer to see rape as a “seduction” depicted as sexual persuasion to which the woman forced to submit against her will, instead of what it actually is, brutal, demeaning, criminal and abusive. 

The myth tells of the harvest goddess Demeter’s rejecting the advances of the gods towards her daughter Persephone and hiding Persephone away. “The story of the maiden’s abduction by Hades against her will is traditionally referred to as the Rape of Persephone.  Zeus, it is said, advised Hades (God of the Underworld) who was in love with the beautiful Persephone, to carry her off, as her mother Demeter, was not likely to allow her daughter to go down to the Underworld. Persephone was gathering flowers with Artemis and Athena—in a field when Hades came to abduct her, bursting through a cleft in the earth. Demeter, when she found her daughter had disappeared, searched for her all over the earth. In most versions she neglects the earth and in the depth of her despair she causes nothing to grow. Helios, the sun, who sees everything, eventually, told Demeter what had happened and at length she discovered Persephone had been abducted by Hades and is forced to live in the Underworld.  Finally, Zeus pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities, who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone to her mother Demeter.

The story continues... Hades indeed complied with the request, but first he tricked Persephone by giving her a kernel of a pomegranate to eat. She ate four seeds. It was a rule of the Fates that whoever consumed food or drink in the Underworld was doomed to spend eternity there. Persephone was released, but she was obliged to spend four months of each year in the Underworld. This time represents Winter when the earth is dormant.”  (from Wikipedia)

The myth served in ancient Greek times to explain the cycle of the seasons to a civilization that had no real understanding of the workings of nature.  Thankfully humankind has advanced and now has unlocked much of nature’s secrets.  One would also hope that humankind will have advanced in its behaviour towards woman and children and regard rape and abduction as serious crimes against those who are defenceless.

My painting of “Persephone” deals with the despair felt when subjected to abuse.  The painting is not alluding to the possibility of my being raped and abducted.

No – it’s about the universal abuse of women over the ages.  As recently as a couple of hundred years ago, women were the ones burnt at the stake as witches when they used herbs for healing.  Women still are being subjected to abuse in this world today as shown by the recent demonstrations by women in India over the rape and abduction and murder of a young woman in Deli recently.

We can choose to ignore these “distasteful” subjects such as rape and child abuse but they fester like an infected wound and erupt into the open and manifest as something catastrophic like the recent events in India. It is better to address these issues directly, seeing them as they are, instead of pretending they do not exist. 

Artistic techniques used in the painting:

The composition of this painting is dominated by the diagonal upward thrust.  This gives the viewer a sense of unease.  It is a very forceful image and a little off putting.  The dominant shape is the cleavage.  The red against the dark blue accentuates this forceful shape.  It suggests violence and a renting apart.  As I have mentioned before in my blog, the viewer should not presume that a colour such as red means anger or blood, but given the subject of this painting is rape, it is clear that blood is involved.  The thin white line beside the red accentuates this colour and draws the eye to the enclosed cleavage or rent.

The background is subtly graduated and is a delicate blue/violet colour and represents tortured skin.  (The yellow on the left hand side is staining through age of the photo and is not part of the painting).

This painting is fairly large and is quite a statement when seen.  It is meant to alert the viewer to the screams of the victim as she is dragged to her demise - Persephone is ravaged.

The simplicity of the whole painting adds to its dynamic effect and brings home the message better than most of the sanitized version of the past.  What do you think?

http://www.buderimartstudio.com 

UNDERSTANDING ABSTRACT ART #44

Title    “Hera – Queen of Heaven and the Goddesses”  (Acrylic) 120x90cm

ABOUT THIS PAINTING:

This painting is another from the “In the Images of Goddesses” Exhibition.  I am reviewing this painting today because it was shown in the video by Natalija Brunovs that was released this year called “Tanmayo – Abstract Artist” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ2MzRmoKBA and serves to demonstrate my painting process. In the video you will see in Subjects 1,2 & 3 (above) how the painting reaches it’s finished form.

The painting represents the energy surrounding the Greek classical goddess Hera.  Hera was the Queen of the Goddesses and married to Zeus.  The snake is one of her symbols, so I started the painting with something that represented a snake.  She also is depicted as having electrifying energy and a commanding and regal personality. You can see that the painting, like many of my works, went through a series of metamorphoses.  

Artistic techniques used in the painting:

The finished painting has a strong diagonal emphasis in its composition.  A diagonal often is unsettling to the viewer and suggests discord.

Gold is symbolic of majesty and I have used a gold colour (similar to yellow ochre) to convey this.   At the time of painting I mixed all my colours from 3 primary colours so this tertiary colour was more citron (derived from yellow and purple).  The compliment to this gold colour is a blue/purple seen at the opposite corners of the diagonal.

Perseveration (or a repeated line) gives the painting a dynamic feel.  The painting is very subjective and represents some aspects within myself, which are unique to this goddess. 

The whole series in the exhibition examines those characteristics that are within all of the human race (male and female). The series also honours different aspects embodied within myself.  The Goddess series should be seen as a whole because it was painted and exhibited at an important turning point in my life and is a celebration of my being. 
http://www.buderimartstudio.com