Into the West, ©John O’Grady
11″ x 12″ x 1.25″, acrylic on deep edge panel, ready to hang
Watching a flamboyant sunset is a joy. The last rays of the sun create a spectacle of warm colours and patterns as if the last flourish is an invitation to us onlookers, to pay attention to this parting gift before bowing out beyond the horizon.
When looking west over the Atlantic ocean, the sky fills our view point, holds our gaze, concentrates our senses.
For a moment, time stops.
Our attention notices each nuance and change in light and colour, we barely see the solitary island dwarfed by the towering sky that breaks the horizon line.
In this painting, we are standing on the west of Ireland shore looking across the infinity of grey-blues set against the ribbons of light rose-violet streaming across the sky.
We contemplate the vastness.
A quiet wistful atmosphere, perhaps a sense of longing is present, I feel.
What do you think?
The colors are ravishing, John, as is the sense of infinite sky and the unreachable horizon. This evokes a feeling of longing, of heightened emotion and the role of the unseen in our daily lives. The unavoidable truth of endings and beginnings. The title and the feeling of wistfulness and mystery remind me of the Mike Newell film, whose beauty and wonder never fail to make me cry.
Hello Jo
Thank you for reminding me of the movie, It completely passed me by when I searched for a title for the painting. Glad to hear that the colours appeal to you
What a beauty ! The captivating richness of colour which can dazzle and beguile us at sunset. Yet, there is something more – felt before in your lovely ‘Take Me To The Island’ series; that sense of yearning, even loss as we look out and beyond but with the added poignancy of nature at the end of another day.
Hello Chris,
Thank you very much. Yes it is very much in keeping with the ‘Take me to the Island’ series
A sky dressed in fiery ethereal beauty having a wonderful dialogue with the ungovernable forces of the great abyss of the liquid Atlantic which if we allow ourselves to inhabit we can experience our own personal conversation which lies very far within ourselves. A beautifully executed meeting of presence John;)
Hello Irene,
Thank you very much for your lovely poetic reading of the painting. ‘The fiery sky’ I particularly like.
Hi John-Very beautiful. So difficult to get the electric colours of a sunset…nature often outdoes what we humans can create but you’ve done it here with that bright light filled coral/pink cloud edges. Love your skies!
Thank you very much Kathleen. I agree nature is beyond comparison.