Paintings 2024

Duality and the things polarities have in common. Gold shines brighter than white, yet at the peak of its strength glimmer turns to ice. Movement and discord meet stillness and order. From the depths come great heights and from profound lows extrude mundane highs. Perspective changes everything and taking a few steps back often changes the whole picture, your place in time allows you to understand different things - and what a beautiful thing that is. Your brain would probably explode if everything was to be revealed at once.

‍

The journey home can be long and arduous for the hero of any epic tale. What once made them leave the safety and comfort of their home can be the same reason for their return. One thing is for certain, no one returns the same. Indeed we should all hope to return better than we left. The world and our adventures give us valuable experience - experience which comes to shape us, and what is old will die and give way to something new. The motion of our souls is never a straight path, but one thing is for certain, we shall all return home one day, return to what we came from.

‍

A commission for a good friend of mine. The piece is about solitude and isolation - the good and the bad. Being alone can really connect you to everything, both animate and inanimate. There's a unity in solitude, and there's a sense of tranquility in a self-imposed isolation. But there's also a darkness that prey on lonely minds, evil spirits come out and try to drive the solitary towards desperation. Loneliness can kill, but you don't have to be lonely because you're alone. You can feel lonely even with others. Stillness and silence are virtues, and are the weapons needed to prevail in spiritual combat against the forces attacking your mind.

‍

Stay true to your vision, the world is a lie.

Cool for: Pilgrims who walk the road seldom taken, Visionaries who don't sleep, Defeating your Arch-nemesis.

Perseverance is your ability to adhere to a course of action, belief, or purpose. With steadfastness, it improves your physical and mental health. Like a police dog who bites and doesn't let go, your goals are always within biting distance. Why fear hell when you can walk through it? You are an unstoppable machine.

At high levels, Perseverance enables you to push through your physical and mental limitations. It makes you a powerful person who is a real go-getter. However, people with low Perseverance are likely to struggle. The will is frail already, and the mind of a person will often be tested. If it doesn't pass, it dies.

‍

While I have a bit of experience drawing and with markers; in fact my very first painting also incorporated markers - this was the real attempt at mixing the main medium of painting with markers. Markers allow for more delicate detail work and it is a medium which allows for great precision. The painting has several layers, each hiding its own secrets and most of these layers are visible on the surface.

The motif of the painting is biblical, of course referencing the crucifixion of Christ. When Jesus of Nazareth was crucified he was put between two criminals at the place called Skull. One of the criminals hanging there insulted Christ proclaiming "Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and save us!" but the other criminal told the first one off, "Don't you fear God? We got what we deserve but this man has done nothing wrong" after which he asked Jesus to remember him when he was to enter his kingdom. Jesus turned to him and said: "I promise you that you will be with me in paradise".

The third bar on the orthodox cross is a symbolic representation of this story, and symbolises the right and left hand paths and our own choice to do good or do bad. The story is a powerful testimony that despite our wrongdoing and conviction, in the end the choice is still ours.

‍

Light is everywhere and there many different kinds of light sources. Fire emits light, so does electricity, and we attribute light to certain personality traits and symbolically use it to represent good, healing and much more. Light is a necessity for almost all life on earth, plants feed on it as do we in a sense. Without our sun there would be no life on earth, at least not as we know it. We bask in it, but the light is an incredible force with unparalleled power. The light from our sun is so distant yet travels here in almost an instant and has the power to start fires, burn our skin and much more. It is life giving but can also be life taking.

A journey from the below the waves to the top of the holy mountain. To ascend to its peak you must walk on the dark waters of your soul, on the surface of your depths there's a thin line for you to walk. It's a story of splitting the sea and achieving self-realisation and striving towards moving closer to the Light - and becoming the best version of yourself.

This painting is an amalgamation of styles and techniques I've been working on over the years, and a call back to the hues of blue which I adore.

‍

This piece was a commission by a very close friend of mine. It was a wonderful to work it and the only briefing I was given was to make a winter landscape. This painting was great practice for me when it comes to light and allowed me to use techniques I've already practiced. The nature is reminiscent of my personal surroundings and inspiration for it was easy to find. I wanted a dramatic light setting and the light to be reflected of the snow the way it is during the late stages of winter.

This painting was a few years in the process. I had a vivid dream under a starry night about a very clear image. In the dream I was painting the vision I saw and when I woke up I knew I had to do it. The title is simple and a reference from the nocturnal origins of this ethereal image. This piece was very demanding and it's probably one of my most worked paintings. There were several parts I had to do and do again for it to match better the image which came to me this faithful night.

Everyday there is a spiritual battle held in your heart - it is a struggle between primordial powers; that of Good and evil. It is a tale as old as time, and a theme that precedes written history and permeates all of our stories and religions. This painting is about that conflict and duality - and our own personal relationship with it. We all have the capacity to do Good but also to do bad, and ultimately a lot of that is up to the decisions we make. We can argue about the relativity of morals and wriggle our ways out of them through mental gymnastics, but you needn't turn further than yourself to see what is Good and what is bad.

Throughout the dark there is always signs that point to the Light; and in the Light there's always dark attempting to fester and spread. We should do well to practice the discernment between these two rather than trying to force both black and white into our greyscale and blind ourselves to it completely.