Source of Beauty
I completed my painting today. I worked for about 9 hours on the final
phase. Before I began -- focusing now on the three open triangles, the
singular "rays" and the 12-sided polygon (only half its sides being
visible) in the center, I thought a lot about the painting's "message."
What would I need to do for color to help evoke the message I WAS
beginning to "see?" The central polygon was also beginning to take on
more importance to me. What was it? And how would its color need to
differ to help emphasise what seemed to be some kind of power? What was
it generating? Mandalas? Yes. But what was it all trying to say? This
was THE question that ran through my mind as I began to think of my
painting's title.
Last night, after completing the 9th mandala, I took a closer look at
the painting and realized what it was. The word "it" turned out to take
center stage -- quite literally. I realized "it" was centrally important
and appeared to be the source or origin of something -- something which
in some very spiritual way was freely creating what to me seemed to be
only one thing: Beauty. The mandalas seemed to represent this beauty to
me. And so, after five "attempts" at finding just the right title I
settled on the simplist final one: "Source of Beauty."
I could write more on this painting's title since it conveys a rather
divine message about the "source" itself -- which I do see as God. The
spectrum violet crystal in the exact center of the painting appears to
float or "be" in gravitational balance with all forms around it.
Although centrally located, that particular "location" in the universe
has always been somewhat of a mystery -- which makes it even more
interesting
I selected a series of reds for the rays. Red represents energy to me
and seems to reflect the power behind the source's creative process. I
selected a series of greens for the open triangles to represent life.
Interestingly, I made a poor color choice (initially) for the rays --
thinking "sap green" (which has a bit of yellow in it) would somehow
show more of this life-energy coming from the source. The darkest red
ray was painted OVER the first use of sap green because the sap green
literally seemed to sap all the energy right out of the painting. It
looked quite dull and lifeless.
I also "cleaned up" the borders of the painting with a coat of permanent
white gouache in all areas "outside" the universe. It helped to make it
appear very clean and smooth.
I used several colors (red, yellow and white) for the starlight to show
the richness (and beauty) in that as well.
I've set a price for this multi-media painting (unframed): $550. All
inks are archival. It is painted on Strathmore Illustration board --
which is 100% acid free. Unmatted, it is 20 inches by 20 inches.
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