and a toe in the Red Sea.
New Horizon – literally and figuratively.
Let’s start with the easy part, with my toe almost in the Red Sea. And the story goes like this: I was considering creating a children’s book with abstract images. But that’s probably a pretty unusual idea anyway. One of the pictures I did would be of a party in the sea where the sea creatures invited children to join the fun. After the first study, a few more followed, in which I mainly tried to abstract the sea itself, fish, and divers themselves. The danger here is that it’s easy to become too complacent. So I’ve tried to stretch my abstractions quite far and focus on the entity.
Soon after, I realized that I really would need a few days of vacation. After careful consideration, it will now be 12 days at the Red Sea. I was there diving before but that was many years ago. Now I know that my biological clock will soon say: “Diving? You should have thought about that earlier!”: Well, earlier is now. And I look forward to the diving pleasure.
new horizon
If my conscience stirs, I can still use the excuse that it’s a “study visit”. What am I going to study? Fish – in the sea and in the pan 😊 But above all the idea of including a new horizon in my painting. In what way?
A few weeks ago I came across a meditation where you should practice the following: Imagine sitting on a high level and feeling the wide horizon in front of you. Easy. But then: “Imagine the wide horizon BEHIND you”. And then the horizon left and right. That changed a few things for me.
In what way? Well, I never paid much attention to the horizon behind me. Not to the side of me either. I became aware that when I paint, I see what is to be painted BEFORE me, like most of us. One concentrates on the composition, the colors, and the flow of power…. IN FRONT OF yourself, ON the screen, ON the paper. What if, while painting, I imagine being IN the middle of the action. Had I ever paid as much attention to the “horizon” behind me as to the one in front of me? Surely not.
That may sound a bit strange in and of itself, especially since you are of course working 2-dimensionally when painting. How can an additional horizon even come into play? [1].
The difference in this inner attitude immediately showed the first, small, successes. I probably see more in it than other viewers, as I’m biased, but I think it’s a good step that encourages work on it further.
study one
I’ve now started painting studies of what I’ll be seeing in the 2nd half of March 😊 It’s mostly about light and the feel of water (men and feelings – I hear you, ladies). The first work is more about the feeling of the first immersion in the water.
Although there is no actual fish in any of the studies, I wanted to capture the feeling of “fish” – and of course water.
study two
The composition is similar to the first study, but now the light comes into play more prominently. Both seem pretty flat at first, but with the use of color, the light, and the creation of a small swath on the bottom right, an effect of depth is created – at least I hope so.
As far as the aspect of the horizon is concerned, I have included dark areas in the lower part that look like shadows. This suggests a light source behind the diver/viewer and thus a space behind it.
footnotes:
[1] Since the idea may still sound too vague, I would like to compare it with an example of listening. With early radios, we heard “mono”. A single speaker served as the sound source. Then came stereo and later surround. And I would like to have this feeling of “surround” in my pictures.
It doesn’t matter to me how feasible this is. I am not interested in whether my consideration of an additional horizon can be implemented, but tinkering with the idea, and exploring the possibilities attracts the corresponding.
Many are familiar with the term LOA (Law of Attraction) of the New Age movement. Even if I’m not necessarily a supporter of the esoteric, I pick out from this field what appeals to me. After LOA the merging into an idea entails its reflection in reality, which, as far as I know, cannot be scientifically proven.
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