Another brick in the wall

Posted on April 25, 2009 by pearce

I’ve been laying down the stones in the wall by first painting the dark shadows between the stones, then adding a layer of grays and white to the faces of the stones. I modified the shape and texture of the two megaliths on either side of the boys and subtly increased the height of the wall at either end, making it appear slightly “fish-eyed”. Some curry for lunch and an atypical but pleasant nap took me out of action for a while, but now it’s time to get back to the studio.

I’m going to have dinner tonight with my good friends the Amiri’s and Francesco Masci, who’s flying out from New York to pick up his paintings that have been on show in the High Studio in Moorpark.

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Legs and cloth

Posted on April 23, 2009 by pearce

img_9447I worked on the legs of the twins in the Sun painting, building a decent first layer of skin tones over the rough sketch version – still pretty rough, but making sense of the structures of the feet and knees. The towels around their waists got two more layers, first a correction of the inaccurate drawing that had been there, then a mixed layer of dry-brushing and working on the highlights with some white.

I keep walking from the studio to my office but completely forgetting to get the reference shots of that wall in Avebury that I want to use for the wall behind the boys. I think it’s appropriate that a wall from within one of the greatest megalithic structures in the world should become part of an allegorical scene within an alchemical retort, because just as the retort is the container for the reduction and coagulation (solve et coagula) of the elements, Avebury is truly one of the environments that shaped my imagination as a young man, becoming a vessel for personal transformation.

I worked on the skeleton, adding a little raw sienna to warm areas of the bones and giving them a touch more variety on the surface, so there is a bit of vibration between the warm sandy brown and the cool blue edges of the bones.

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Candlelit path

Posted on April 21, 2009 by pearce

This was beautiful. A group of students helped to light the candles and place them into bags, then we silently walked the pathway with candles in hand adding them to the pathway on our journey to the centre.

The Fire path.

I’m very grateful to have been able to do this. img_9418

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One of Terry’s students helping to light a candle.

It was so peaceful! Even with a brass band practicing Souza marches somewhere nearby and adding a truly surreal flavour to the evening, I found that the outside world dropped away while I was within the path.

I loved this. So simple, so beautiful.

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Heart and soul

Posted on April 21, 2009 by pearce

img_9364In Valentin Tomberg’s great Meditations on the Tarot he describes the relationship of the alchemical twins as a matter of the interaction of heart and mind becoming one in intuition. I like this idea, although it’s a little distant from the alchemical symbolism of the card, which shows the twin (often seen as the king and queen) salt and sulphur emergent from the nigredo, being washed clean by the mercury falling from the sun.

Being influenced by Hatha and Kundalini yoga in my version of the card I decided to add the glow of the heart and third eye chakras to illustrate Tomberg’s idea.

The heart chakra – anahata – is thought to be the balance of male and female, the meeting place of the divine and material world, while the third eye chakra – ajna – is the location of transcending time and universal truth, beyond duality: universal mind .

I’ve also begun work on the legs of the boys, and I hope to get into more work on them tomorrow, but it looks as if administrative work is going to occupy a lot of my time during the day. Maybe I’ll get a shot at it in the evening. Right now I’m going to head out to the labyrinth to wait for dusk and light up a hundred candles so we can walk a candle lit labyrinth.

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Blue

Posted on April 19, 2009 by pearce

img_9363This evening I spent a little time simply looking at the painting to see what it needs to be complete. I spend quite a lot of time doing this with paintings, contemplating which direction they should go in after finishing a good chunk of the work. I found it very distracting to look at the patchy background of the piece, so I laid down a unifying and darkening layer of Ultramarine Blue over the chocolate Van Dyke Brown. This makes the darks so rich that they fall away into void, while leaving a slight trace of blue around the edges of the figure that I have liked for years, using it in many of the big paintings. The glossy black background makes the contrast richer, so the skeleton pops out even more three dimensionally than before.

I know I’ll have to re-do this blue layer later because I won’t be able to lay down the heads without making an impact on the areas around them, but this really has helped to clear the painting in my mind; from here on it’s about fixing absences and improving the composition.

I’m keen to finish this piece because I’d like to have posters of it ready for sale at the exhibit in mid-May. I need to figure out where else I might be able to borrow a crown or two for the King and Queen.

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Scythe

Posted on April 19, 2009 by pearce

I’ve managed to paint the scythe in a light raw sienna, and to clean up the blade in a solid grey that will take a touch of blue to fix the edges and add a metallic quality to it. I’ve asked Lolita in our costume department if she has any crowns that i can borrow for the alchemical king and queen, turns out that they have some, but they’re going to need them for the production that they’re working on right now, so this will have to wait until May, which is okay, because I have a million other things to paint and worry about right now as I prepare for the Brand show.

The Scandinavian Festival labyrinth has been populated by a mixture of people walking its meandering path, ranging from contemplative new agers moving quietly to young children hurtling around as fast as possible. I like the location of this path, it’s a bit more secluded this time, so there’s more of a sense of isolation and peace about the experience.

The Tuesday evening candlelit walk is planned for eight o’clock.

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Death in tarot

Posted on April 18, 2009 by pearce

It’s not such a bad thing to draw the death card in a tarot spread, because it usually is interpreted to mean transformative change rather than death itself.

More interestingly, in alchemical symbolism the reaper and other images of death, beheading and blackness usually stand for the nigredo phase of the work, when the material is allowed to blacken in order to separate out the alchemical Salt and the Sulphur (not to be mistaken for our present day understanding of the chemicals salt and sulphur) This part of the process leaves the impure remains of the material behind when the salt and sulphur are separated by heating and distillation, so although it may appear to be destructive, the results are good, being the production of the purified essence of the material.

The painting isn’t finished yet, but the work on the skeleton itself is largely complete, needing only a few shadows and details to wrap it up. I’ll put a suggestion of a landscape in at 1 : 1.62 of the height of the canvassed panel, and as I’ve said there will be the decapitated heads of the alchemical king and queen behind the figure of death.

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Bones

Posted on April 17, 2009 by pearce

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Bones, alchemy and a narrow rocky pathway

Posted on April 15, 2009 by pearce

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I continued with the skeleton for a short time, bringing it still closer to completion, but unable to find the last couple of hours that I need to get that foot done. The heads will take a couple of days each and I still need to figure out the landscape, or lack of landscape that the piece will need.

This afternoon I spent a short time with John in the organic chemistry laboratory chatting about how to set up the reflux in gallery so that it can distill the essence of Glendale while the show is on there. To my relief it seems that we have all the equipment we need on hand, so this will not be as tricky as I thought. We have to provide a constant stream of cold water to cool the chamber so that the steam constantly recycles – there’s a special refrigerated pump that does exactly what we need.

The Scandinavian Festival is coming up this weekend, so I put together a labyrinth for them with the help of Kristi Collell’s printmaking class. Laying out the path never fails to impress me by its grace and beautiful geometry. Next Tuesday I hope to have a candlelit labyrinth evening, open to visitors to the campus. If you’re in the area, please come and join us. I’ll post again with more information soon.

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At the feet of the reaper

Posted on April 14, 2009 by pearce

One more foot to go and the bone man is complete. I’m really feeling tired now, after several days of focus on this painting, and making panels as entertainment in between painting sessions. 

I’ll post a picture tomorrow after the last bit of work is completed, then I’ll get started on putting in the decapitated heads of the alchemical king and queen.

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