You are Everything VIII, ©John O’Grady
16″ x 16″ x 1.75″, oil on deep edge canvas, ready to hang.
SOLD
This painting explores the wonderment of nature and invites you to take a moment to reflect and contemplate. It’s a romantic theme I return to often because it’s worth exploring.
The unusual colour arrangement gives this painting an added magical quality while retaining a dream-like feel.
We are on the bogland covered with warm, orange-red grasses looking towards the sea and the sun setting behind the horizon line.
To stand still before nature and, through all our senses, by just being, feel it’s all one is incredibly powerful.
This series seek to recapture this experience through colour and mark making.
I’d love to hear what you think.
The light in this piece is sublime, John. The palette reminded me initially of Maxfield Parrish’s use of complementary colors, but this is so much more subtle, mysterious, and limpid. I feel that I’m there, colors flooding my eyes, the hushed rustle of the grasses, the air on my skin. The light shifts moment by moment, impossible to hold on to. There is an impression of limitless depth — that one could move into the painting and float away into those clouds, and never reach the horizon. I know the feeling you write about — that quietly ecstatic sense of not knowing where your body ends and the rest of the world begins. This painting evokes it beautifully.
Hello Jo,
Thank you very much for your comment. You have managed to pick out another artist who I am very fond of like Redon, Parrish imbued those landscapes of his with something extra didn’t he? His use of colour was quite extraordinary. Your thoughts on my painting made me smile, particularly the ‘floating away into those clouds’ I agree with you Jo the light in this piece came out really well I think.
The golden jewelled clouds are stitched in a royal veridian canopy. The bogland breathing like dense red clay providing an anchor of rest for those who witness the first viewing of the enveloping Atlantic sunset glowing with summer heat, soaking all our senses in colour as the artists raps at the doorway of our imagination. One of my very favourites John 🙂
Hello Irene
The ‘bogland breathing’ very much echoes my own feelings, it does breath doesn’t it? I was glad to hear that it was one of your favourites. I think it turned out well enough. Your comment made me happy about the ‘artist raps at the doorway of our imagination’ Thank you very much
I think this must be one of your best and most inspiring skies John. The wonderful colour combinations are intense but delicate and pearlescent. The strong diagonals add drama and energy, drawing the eye down to the horizon and the sea which shines with beautiful light effects. In the foreground, the texture and rich earthiness of the bog positively glows underneath the setting sun.
Hello Christine,
Thank you for your thoughtful comment on the painting, I must admit I was pretty happy how the sky worked out after a week of frustration working on it, I guess it pays to persevere. I agree with you about the light in the painting, I think it makes it