Artwork
Digital Artworks
Skull Portraits
Sculptures
Paintings
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“The artist asks us, not to consider the cosmic and metaphorical in opposition to the ordinary, but as being part of it, integral to it"
Oliver Basciano, deputy editor of Art Review, 2010
PORTAL PAINTINGS | 2019 - present
The Portal Paintings are in part inspired by a conversation between spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle and artist Alexander de Cadenet about art and beauty where the idea of art being a portal through which viewers can connect to a deeper dimension within themselves was discussed.
“That is one of the main functions of art, is to become a portal. If I can perceive beauty everywhere in nature, I don’t really need art anymore because art is everywhere. There are many humans who cannot perceive it but they may be able to through art, to open up within themselves that portal by contemplating art.”
Eckhart Tolle in conversation with Alexander de Cadenet for Watkins Magazine, #50, September 2017.
The Portal Paintings are designed to bring about a transformative experience for the viewer – to inspire a connection to a deeper dimension of peace and tranquility. The portal is both the whole artwork and is also a feature within the artwork; created by the space around it, in itself it is emptiness. But you need to have something tangible in order to conceive of 'emptiness'.
Using the aesthetics of natural phenomena, such as eclipses, the space within the portal is an optical illusion. The space both within the portal and outside the portal is actually the same tone but it looks brighter within the portal.
While questioning what is ‘truth’ of what we see or an illusion, the Portal Paintings offer relief from sensory overload; they reflect the Japanese concept of ‘Seiryoku Zenyo’ meaning the practice of optimum efficiency.
LIFE-LINE PAINTINGS | 2009 - today
"The continuity of the Line is a metaphor for the continuity of the individual human life".
Edward Lucie-Smith, 2016
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"The brush was...moved across the surface of the canvas in a single flowing gesture, without passing or being lifted from it. The line is never broken. The continuity of the line is a metaphor for the continuity of the individual human life. The different coloured strands incorporated in the single flowing brushstroke can also be read as metaphorical: the shifting moods evoked in the artist’s psyche by different kinds of experiences, but all of them inextricably bound together, as the various hues are thanks to the forward movement of the brush".
Edward Lucie-Smith, 2016
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The life-line paintings give an overview of a whole life cycle from beginning to end. There is the chance to contemplate a whole journey on the picture plane – the interruptions, the ups and downs, the interactions and intermixing with different colours and other ‘life-lines’ and how the journey is impacted and altered by the variety of ‘situations’ encountered.
More recently the "Rollercoaster" paintings evolved from the life-lines and there are now digital rollercoaster paintings which can be seen here - Rollercoasters
