Category Archives: Uncategorized

Passing: Fire Escape (Detail of Work in Progress)

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Yet another detail (see last two posts), showing a bit more this time. Not finished yet.

This painting began with the idea of red flames, figures descending stairwells and climbing escape ladders while the earth’s treasure, all we cherish in this world, is vanishing, gone forever out the window. It is not so red anymore, but the fire and fear of red reach back to a painting I originally posted in February last year, Nereids Enter the Burning Forest.

Here is the statement I wrote recently for that painting:

This painting is about bravery in the face of insurmountable odds.  The two figures run into a burning forest carrying balls of water, balloons.  They do this rather than step back, look away, leave the job to others.  With their action they counter the hopelessness we on the sidelines feel in these times of crisis.  As I write this, the world mourns in anger the seemingly targeted deaths of seven humanitarian aid workers in Gaza.

RED

Red for me means love and joy
But that is not the subject here.

Fire and Fear

This red is a line and a light:
Don’t cross, it taunts;
Don’t move, it mocks.

This red threatens and cons.
Courage, it cries!
Promising passion,
It pleads sacrifice.

This red is infernal
Gathering heat as it roils and rolls,
It bleeds its case.
It wants your life.

Into White (III) Disintegration

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Acrylic and graphite powder on canvas (2023)

Size: w 16″ x h 12″ x d 1″

Part III of Triptych Into White (I, II, III: Destruction, Extinction, Disintegration)

Into White (I, II, III:  Destruction, Extinction, Disintegration) — see previous posts for October and November — is a response to the current wars in the Ukraine and the Middle East, to the accelerating rate of extinction of species, to our rising fear for the future of the planet. It is currently on display at the Tri-Art Gallery in Kingston ON until early January 2024 as part of White, the first in a series of exhibits based on pigments. The entire show can be viewed online at https://www.triartgallery.ca/white

White is terror, white is peace; extreme heat and bitter cold.  For me, white especially symbolizes absence, before the beginning and after the end, the initial void and the final emptiness.  White is eternity, what always was and what will remain when time runs out.  I see white as non-existence but not to be confused with death, as it is outside the circle of mortality within which all other colours are eventually absorbed into black.  White is thus unknowable as it lies at one remove, not next or beside but one step away from life, after the chalk line has been erased.

Destruction:  The action or process of causing so much damage to something that it no longer exists or cannot be repaired.

Extinction:  The complete disappearance of a species from Earth.

Disintegration:  The process of losing cohesion and unity; of coming to pieces, falling apart.

Dragonfly Dance: Young Nereids and the Red-Crowned Cranes

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Dragonfly Dance: Young Nereids and the Red-Crowned Cranes (Detail)

Acrylic, ink, pastel, Japanese paper on cradled birch panel (2023)

Size: w 24″ x h 12″ x d 1.5″

The red-crowned cranes of northeast Asia are known for their beautiful plumage and graceful courtship dances. Here, they are joined by young Nereids practising their ballet steps. The dragonfly, an audience of one, is barely visible at the top centre of the painting. I owe my inspiration for this work to photographers Tim Flach (“Red Crown Cranes Courting” from his Endangered series) and Sarah Waiswa (“Last Act” from her Ballet in Kibera project) — thank you to both.

Nereids and the Ruby Sea Dragon (Detail of Work in Progress)

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Acrylic and Japanese paper on canvas (started 2021, still in progress 2023)

Size: w 22″ x h 28″ x d 2″

Yet another detail, this time of one of my two Nereids. Progress is slow over the summer months but I can see the way to the end (I think).

Nereids in the Clouds (Day)

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Acrylic, ink, pastel, Japanese paper on cradled birch panel (2023)

Size: w 30″ x h 15″ x d 1.5″

This painting was inspired by the cloudscapes of Georgia O’Keeffe (especially Sky Above Clouds IV, 1965) and Kees van Dongen’s depiction of the ballerinas Anna Pavlova and Ida Rubinstein dancing Cléopâtre (1909). I see it hung paired with Nereids at Nightfall See Fire and Rain (my March 2022 post https://npaulartworks.com/2022/03/31/nereids-in-fire-and-rain/).

Leaving Eden: Nereids and the Northern White Rhino

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Acrylic, ink, Japanese paper on cradled birch panel (2023)

Size: w 24″ x h 12″ x d 1.5″

The Northern White Rhino is on the verge of extinction but efforts to engineer the revival of the species are generating excitement. According to The Guardian (Dec2022): “Scientists who collected semen and eggs from the last living members of the rhino species hope to be able to implant embryos into a cousin of the northern white rhino as part of nascent repopulation efforts which, if successful, would be unprecedented.”

Nereids and the Ruby Sea Dragon

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Acrylic and Japanese paper on canvas (2021)

Size: w 22″ x h 28″ x d 2″

Another detail from a piece I started a while back (see https://npaulartworks.com/2021/03/28/leafy-sea-dragon-detail/). Still in progress.

Undaunted

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Acrylic, ink, water soluble crayon on tiles mounted on cradled birch panel (2021)

Size: w 16″ x h 12″ x d 2″

Just finished this piece for inclusion in a show of the same name, the annual OKWA (Organization of Kingston Women Artists) exhibit at the Window Gallery in Kingston, Canada for the month of October.

For a year and a half a herd of elephants has been migrating across southwest China, covering hundreds of miles – sometimes wandering through neighbourhoods or crossing city thoroughfares cleared of traffic by police monitoring their progress.  No-one knows why they left the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve in March 2020, but diminishing habitat would have been a factor.  Perhaps then they got lost and just kept going.  Only now are they almost home again.

The mystery of the venture combined with the roaming herd’s determination and stamina has fascinated people around the world these many long pandemic months.  We have been captivated by the soulful, at times playful, creatures and taken inspiration from their quest.  In the words of a young man hired to deliver corn and pineapples to the always hungry elephants, “it almost felt as if there was a holy aura around them.”