Take Me to the Island XII, ©John O’Grady
12.1″ x 12.1″ x 1.8″, acrylic and iridescent bronze paint on deep edge panel, ready to hang.
Not for Sale (NFS)
This piece is all about scale.
The dark immense sky dwarfs the island.
Curtains of rain, lit from behind, fall slowly onto the island and into the sea. The fluidity of these veils, accentuated by the shifting light and dark movement, adds an abstract feel to this piece.
Yet the island, a small dark mass surrounded by the warmish glow of the water retains a presence.
The warm, deep brown/black ‘brou de noix’ colour gives this painting a sepia print-like quality.
I obtained this by mixing a matt black vinyl acrylic with an iridescent bronze and applied it throughout the painting. By varying the amount of each product, I could paint matt veils of rain and shift to a reflective look in the sky behind.
I’d love to read your comments.
Your art gets more beautiful by the day John! Love this one! ☺
Thank you very much 🙂
I like the way this toyed with my perception, John. For me the entry point was the darkness above, and my eye was drawn down the sheets of darkness interspersed with light (actually the curtains of rain, as my brain later interpreted them), coming to rest finally on the small, dark island pooled in light in the distance, bringing everything suddenly into sharp focus of scale and perspective. There is a strong sense of abstraction in the sky (of something unnamed trying to break through), and again a strong photographic feel, but as though the image were printed on metal. The haloed island and the shimmering water surrounding it anchor the piece and the viewer in space and give the eye (and mind) a resting place. A mystical and amazing piece.
Hello Jo
I remember in a previous comment you mentioned I think it was the Turning of the Year when you said ‘What a journey upward’ as our gaze is drawn heaven wards, well as you rightly say on this occasion the eye is drawn down the sheets from the dark above, which is very much how I view it, till one reaches the island ‘pooled in light’ Thank you very much.
Another sensory delight John and I agree it is all about scale. Yet, for me it is also about gravity with a downwards fall towards the sea of soft but steady swathes of rain. The island appears to stand amidst it all in splendid isolation,dramatised by the sepia – a really interesting effect!
Hello Chris,
I was considering calling the painting the falling light which would chime very much with your comment on the painting. It is as you say Chris a feeling of gravity and that slow movement downward to the island in ‘splendid isolation’
For me I sense a glorious theatrical performance in this painting..it’s the end of the evening and the curtains come down on what feels like a thousand red sunsets burned out and we are left with a bleeding sky. The steels of rain plunge into the lungs of the Atlantic causing a surge of fear, a passing fear, searching for a break of freedom. It penetrates the veins of the wild choreographed waves down to a place , a world where everything becomes calm and lucid, where we reach a sense of solace.. to ponder, simplify, nurture and to begin again. There is so much power and freedom flowing your paintings John, so well done to you!
Hello Irene,
I do like the idea of the theatrical performance and the curtain coming down after the final act and as you say Irene we are left with the ‘bleeding sky’ Thank you for your comment on my paintings flowing with freedom, it is much appreciated.
That is awesome John ..I love it..
Thank you Elles glad you like it.