(Click on the image to enlarge it)
The Field of Fallen Stars, ©John O’Grady
12” x 12” x 1.5” acrylic on canvas, ready to hang
SOLD
Dreams often have their place in reality.
They flit between one event or emotion and meld into another to create its own mindscape.
This painting is the result of a dream but is also, in part, based in reality.
On the night of the shooting stars in August when the air is balmy, we are looking out across the untended field to the strange glow in the sky and the dark sombre trees.
Shooting stars have fallen.
Strewn across the field, they illuminate the darkened landscape.
In a dreamlike reversal, stars are no longer in the firmament.
Once the painting was finished, I remembered an illustration I’d come across many years ago in a book of symbols by the 15th century Italian artist Cristoforo De Predis called the ‘Death of the Sun, Moon and Stars’.
Perhaps the confluence of the dream, the night of the shooting stars, and the illustration coalesced to create this magical painting.
I can only hazard a guess what the significance of the painting might be.
All the stars fallen from the sky, why they continued to glow brightly in the field?
Why the sky is now devoid of any stars?
We don’t always need answers though, do we?
My feeling is that we don’t need answers, just an emotional response to what’s made.
Do you feel something too?
Hello John, what a visual feast in so many ways. You have returned to a colour combination that you seem drawn to – blue and yellow. I just love the way you use one colour to enhance the other and explore different ways that they can relate. In this painting the yellow is glorious, golden and glowing in an otherworldly way which, for me, gives it an almost spiritul air. This connects beautifully with the 15th century painting you discuss and the viewer can feel a sense of awe as humans have always tried to make sense of the wonders of world around us…shooting stars …how could that be explained at that time other than by the work of the hand of God? Your imagery is incredibly appealing and wholly engrossing and the stars that have fallen seem to tumble and flow towards us leaving us to wonder and dream about their meaning…that is the power of art!
Hello Chris,
Thank you for your lovely comment, I was struck by your response to the arrangement of colour, which resonated with me. I do think it’s the colour in this type of painting, which is the starting point, often it sends me of on a flight of fancy. I like also your reading of the painting and how you mention the ‘stars tumbling and flowing forward’, how interesting
John, John, John!! What a spectacular, light-inspired dreamscape! I absolutely love it. And, yes, dreams need no explanation! Who can know the unknowable? This touches the mystic in all of us. Thank you!
Hi Terry,
Thank you for your comment, how very true, ‘who can know the unkowable’ it’s wonderful to hear that the painting touched you so!
This feels magical, John. The palette and atmosphere remind me of your fairy rath paintings. I sensed a night in late summer immediately. The carpet of fallen stars is ravishing.
Dreams are our reality while we experience them. We may not need to differentiate, especially in the realm of art. Mystery can be more satisfying than answers (which are always suspect).
I love that this painting, itself due in part to a dream, awakened your memory of the Cristoforo De Predis illustration. Maybe some archetypal forces were at work. The result is eerily beautiful and timeless.
Yes I think you’re spot on the atmosphere and palette does have a ‘Fairy Rath’ quality to it. ‘Mystery can be more satisfying than answers’ I wholeheartedly agree Jo. Like you, I’m always wary of fixed and definitive answers, where no room for interpretation is given.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment on the painting’
Dear John
As always something is evoked in me by your paintings. This one has troubled me somehow until I realised my own ‘mindcape’ was overloaded with imagery the day I first viewed it. So in the spirit of a Rorsch test I projected all the dramatic events of the day on to the painting.
A combination of Holocaust Memorial Day, the French protests and the election loss all coalesced onto it so it became a political scene in a way or a reference for these dramatic times that seem intense and catacyclismic.
This is what I came up with:
A Collective of Stars
Paris is shooting stars
Towards an emerald sky
Neon-lighted lime.
Collective urge
Revolution surge
Earth in reverse
Heretical purge
Galileo’s claim
Synchronised proclaim
The rules have changed
I had also downloaded a picture of a field with the same lime colour that day which made me smile and reminded me of Jung’s collective unconscious.
I’ll see if I can send it here.
Once again thank you for such powerful art, it is the work of a true artist if I may say.
(The colour is verdant-beautiful)
Alacoque
Hello Alacoque,
Thank you for your wonderful and thoughtful comment. Your words made me look with a fresh light at the painting. I agree with you Alacoque there are so many powerful images at the moment that are seeping into our consciousnes, not least the ones you mention but also the wildfires in Australia. I am glad that the painting brought out such strong feelings and thoughts.