INSIDE FOR EVERYONE

Alone Gouache on paper 28 x 37.6 cm

BOOK LAUNCH UPDATE

It is one week until my book For Everyone: Words and Paintings is officially launched! Whilst it was published in Sept/Oct last year I decided not have a launch in the middle of Christmas mayhem and partying. So, next week it is! Thursday 23 rd February.

Please check HERE for all the details, plus testimonials and more.

The launch will take place at FireWorks Gallery one of Brisbane's best known art galleries. Check out the gallery's history HERE I am very grateful to the Director, Michael Eather, for allowing me to hold the launch and mini exhibiton at FireWorks.

The thirty original paintings inside For Everyone  will be exhibited from the 22 - 25 February at FireWorks Gallery. The paintings have not been exhibited before.

*The e-magazine The Culture Concept has written a short piece about the launch.

For Everyone

The thirty paintings inside For Everyone are each accompanied by some short, and sometimes, poetic prose which is neither didactic nor descriptive. The prose and paintings stir your inner child/essence so that the book becomes all about you, and the conversations you have with yourself and others. Whilst the paintings were initially inspired by observations of my children, particularly as they entered the educational system, over the years I have realised that they are more about the inner child/essence which lives within us all, influencing how we react to events in our lives, how we love and hate, how we cope with success and failure...and so on.

INSIDE FOR EVERYONE

I have uploaded some of the paintings inside For Everyone. The paintings were created in 1997 when my children were very little. In fact, I was pregnant with my third child when I painted this series. She is a bit put out that she's not in one particular image, the one just below called Dare to Be. This painting depicts a family of four, Mum, Dad, and two children with a crowd of eyes staring at them. Yes, it is a painting of me, my then husband and our two children. I have tried to portray how we felt when we were lobbying for a differentiated educational program for our eldest child. We lived in a small country town and the issue became a point of discussion around the community!

Yet, whilst this painting was inspired by a particular series of events it actually, I believe, demonstrates how we all might feel when we step outside the norm. We feel all eyes are on us, we temper our behaviour not to be too noticeable, we gird ourselves to pursue what we think is right...and so on. We can feel anxious, fearful, questioning ourselves and others, angry, disappointed, excited, proud... These kinds of feelings wax and wane as we grow older. But as we get older we become gamer and braver. But, do we?

Dare To Be  Gouache on paper 28 x 37.6

Asleep Gouache on paper 28 x 37.6 cm

This is the prose I wrote for Asleep:

Why did the slow tortoise and the fast hare race each other?

Steady wins the race, so the moral goes.

But, do mismatched races benefit anyone?

Which One? Gouache on paper 37.6 x 28 cm

The initial inspiration for Which One? came from witnessing how my children changed their behaviour according to environments eg: home, educational etc. I watched as they conformed [or not] to perceived expectations from teachers and friends. How they negotiated the complexity of playground dynamics, performance expectations from teachers, parents, friends etc. Absolutely fascinating and I am sure very normal. Yet, sometimes I wondered if one particular child was really just too attuned to other's expectations and approval or disapproval!

As time passed and I re-looked at the paintings in this series, I realised that paintings such as Which One? 'speak' to all of those who are vulnerable toseeking approval and avoiding disapproval, often becoming angry with oneself when behaviours and decisions are based on everything but one's own desires and dreams. Ultimately the question asked is 'Who am I?'

This is the prose accompanying Which One? in For Everyone:

Who are you?

Self perceptions can morph wildly

from one situation to another,

especially if the approval of others is the master.

When you ponder the other paintings in this post, and in For Everyone, you will see how they all relate. Indeed, the painting below Disappearance takes on interesting connotations when considered with Which One? Do people 'disappear' as they morph to expectations or do they need to disappear to find themselves again? Think about Which One? in relation to Who Pulls The Strings?

Inner Child Gouache on paper 47.6 x 28 cm

Disappearance Gouache on paper 37.6 x 28 cm

There are many conversations you can have with yourself about Disappearance.

Let Them Fly Gouache on paper 37.6 x 28 cm

Who Pulls The Strings? Gouache on paper 37.6 x 28 cm

I'd like to think that people, who buy For Everyone will return to it time and time again, just to ponder and to let their imaginations 'go'. But, there are many possible scenarios where the book can be used to spark conversation and creativity. A primary school teacher has told me she will be using For Everyone as a stimulus for her gifted and talented creative writing class. I young consellor has seen possibilities where the book could be used as a stimulus for conversations with clients/patients, to draw out those secrets we hold within our psyches, within the inner child. I can see For Everyone being a tool to stimulate conversations with the elderly, where memories of their early lives may be stirred, revealing those details that are often missed in simply recalling facts about events.

PRICES
The paintings will be exhibited from 22 - 25 February at FireWorks Gallery. They will be on display for the actual book launch on the 23rd. Details HERE

All, but one, will be exhibited unframed. I have framed the painting which is on the front cover of For Everyone so people can get an idea of what the paintings might look like when framed. The unframed price is $700 AUD and framed $920 AUD

My children have picked out one painting each to keep.

Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

CLOSE AND FAR DISTANCE

                                                              Oil on linen 80 x 150 cm

I am in a quandary. I have painted this new work above with general ideas of an 'everything landscape' in mind. Yet, I don't know what to call it. Maybe, by the end of writing this post a title will have come to me.

I was wanting to visually capture a sense of vastness at the same time as revealing the minutiae that etches character, nuance and intimacy into the landscape. I wanted the landscape to be ambiguous with regards to exact place and space, yet recognisable as landscape, yes an Australian one, but also a universal one. I hoped that viewers would 'read' the painting in a variety of ways, at one instance seeing for example, land and sea, at another instance land and sky, or maybe fire and water, or perhaps at a micro level seeing a cross section of a drop of water and a grain of sand. Maybe seeing 'everything' and every perspective at once...

This landscape took me back to my childhood growing up on the treeless Pirriunuan Plain, just outside Dalby on the Darling Downs, Queensland. Looking eastwards, the majestic Bunya Moutains cut a startling silhouette against endless skies. Looking westwards the flat horizon shimmered with watery mirages in summer, and in winter the crisp coldness evaporated mirages to almost reveal the curvature of the Earth. Within this vast expanse I could be propelled from a wonder of endless space to a curiosity of micro intimacies. This experience of close and far distance has inspired me over many years. These are the 'landscape' elements I try to visually describe.

Regular readers will know of my interest in perspective, literal and metaphoric. I have written about it numerous times. In an increasingly globalised world in which we live locally, it is imperative that we develop skills in seeing multiple perspectives...even simultaneously. The dance between the macro and micro involves a myriad of, what could be called, perspectival steps... like a tango where there are flamboyantly expressed moves and tantalisingly intimate gestures, or like a symphony where music's fulsome largess can seem beyond distance and individual notes can catapult the listener to places where seductive secrets stir.

So back to the painting above. Two of my much loved transcultural-religious trees-of-life create the landscape elements, both broadly speaking as well as in detail. The Australian landscape, particularly where I grew up, constantly changes. As seasons pass, sorghum crops swathe the landscape in rusty red, wheat fields wash it with naples yellow, sunflowers make it sing with a sunshine yellow, new seedlings whisper a soft green hue. When the soil is fallow it reveals a rich and fertile blackness. The sky can be crystal blue, sometimes greeted by fluffy white clouds, and at other times dense grey ones. At night the darkness is still, only interrupted by the sparkle of the Milky Way and the moon in its various phases. I remember when my Father, like most farmers at the time, used to burn the stubble after harvesting was completed. This was done under controlled conditions and prior to research showing that ploughing the stubble back into the soil was a better method.  The fires were outstanding, furious and shortlived. The colours were rich and thick. In drought the land is bare and naked, after rain it sings with new colours.

Intimate details such as cracked dry soil, scattered seeds, abundant mushrooms after rain, animal droppings, snake trails, discovering chook eggs in the bamboo, dropped feathers, rain drops on leaves, puddles, small insects [sometimes in plague proportions!], wildflowers and so on, are the warp and weft creating the tapestry of vastness. They are all there in the landscape above...trust me!

Regular readers might ask about my concerns for the land, and the landscape, with regards to the burgeoning Coal Seam Gas industry and the growth in open cut mining. Indeed, these activities disrupt the landscape externally and internally, visually and vibrationally. The quiet stillness of the black of night, in parts of Australia, is now silenced with the constant and persistent noise of gas wells. The landscape is visually punctuated with these same wells and underground they bore into depths where gas extraction potentially can change aquifer dynamics and soil profiles. As regular readers know, my concerns have been expressed many time before on this BLOG.

Most Australians know their landscape is affected by the volatility inherent in nature's extremes....bush fires, floods, droughts, cyclones ravage the land. Indeed, in Western Queensland and Northern New South Wales, floods are currently wrecking homes, businesses, crops and infrastructure. The town of St. George is having its third flood within two years and the town has been evacuated. Whilst the water is currently destructive, the long term benefits are enormous. The soil's profile is now replete with moisture, dams and rivers are full. Three to four years ago the soil was starved of moisture, dams were low, rivers in danger.

I think I will call this painting 'Close and Far Distance'

SELECTED PERSPECTIVE AND DISTANCE POSTS

CLOSE DISTANCE
PERSPECTIVE-Distance
INTO THE SYMPHONY
HOPE IN THE DISTANCE
NOTIONS OF PERSPECTIVE
THE BEGINNING OF EVERYTHING
UNTETHERING LANDSCAPE


 *****************************************************************************

FOR EVERYONE: WORDS AND PAINTINGS UPDATE
Two weeks today until my BOOK LAUNCH!

Just a reminder that my book launch for 'For Everyone: Words and Paintings' is Thursday 23 February! Click HERE for more details.

TESTIMONIALS

Not only is Kathryn a deeply talented, original and inspiring artist, she has a gift for wordsmithing as well! Utilizing the raw power of her art, ‘For Everyone’ is a masterful insight into the very essence of who we truly are, our complexities, our simplicities and who we are meant to be. Dr George Blair-West, Author of The Way of the Quest

In Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox’s book, 'For Everyone: Words and Paintings', the combination of words and images is a gift to the senses. I highly recommend it. Felix Calvino, Author of A Hatful of Cherries

For Everyone is absolutely beautiful and as I read the prose, and looked at the paintings, it was like going on a personal journey of my life. It touched on fond memories of my childhood and reinforced my beliefs in being an individual. As a teacher I know this book could be used in so many ways. In 2011 I organised and ran the Gifted and Talented Program in Writing at my school. Many students in my class published their poetry and stories in an Australian wide writing competition. I am continuing in this position in 2012 and will incorporate this unique book to help my students develop their ideas and be more expressive. The paintings and phrases in For Everyone are great conversation starters. They will also inspire and encourage students to be brave enough to share and express their thoughts and individuality. This book is a fabulous resource for educating and inspiring young people to share the beauty from within! Lou Walsh: Primary School Teacher

So, until next time,
Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

THE MOON

Memory Oil on linen 80 x 120 cm 2002
Memory Previous Post

I am working on a new painting...an 'everything landscape'. But, whilst I have been working, thinking, sitting and standing in front of my easel, I realised that over the years the moon has been a significant inspiration. As reguler readers know, the cosmos inspires me...not just the literal one out there in space, but also the metaphoric one within our psyches.

So I decided to upload a selection of my paintings where the moon appears. And, as I went through my files I realised that whilst the moon represents time and cycles it also anchors me to my childhood... or rather it stirs my inner child through memory. Indeed, the painting above is called Memory. Childhood memories were also the stimulus for the painting below When I Was A Child I Dreamt I could Fly.

In both paintings the phases of the moon orientate the figures in time and space. Time's dance of infinite cyclical movements, stirs the universal memory. I am reminded of a recent post Elemental Dance where I mention the Whirling Dervishes. Their mesmerising, and trance inducing, whirling movement seems to condense the universal/multiversal cycles of life to a persistently contemporary beauty which reminds us of life's propulsion. Like a vortex the Dervishes suspend time linking all experience.

When I Was A Child I Dreamt I Could Fly Oil on linen 80 x 120 cm 2003

When I Was A Child I Dreamt I Could Fly Previous Post

The painting below The Flat And Fanstastic Horizon is also grounded in memories of my childhood growing up on the flat treeless Pirrinuan Plain outside Dalby, in S.E Queensland Australia. The whole painting is created with a cascade of tree-of-life symbols. The full moon forms a portal-like presence in the night sky.

I have previously written about my Grandmother, who had a great interest in astronomy. She tried to teach me and my two brothers to identify certain stars and the constellations. Apart from my Grandmother's cosmological interests, the night sky of my childhood could not be ignored. On a clear night the Milky Way was like a swathe of glistening fabric flung across the heavens. The glistening was not dulled by any ambiant lighting from cities or major settlements. The stars and the moon glowed fulsomely and elegantly.

This takes me to another painting, a more recent one to The Flat And Fanstastic Horizon. In fact, only since starting this post have a I realised the connection between the two paintings. The second one is The Beginning Of Everything  [It is below The Flat And Fanstastic Horizon.] Please read my previous post where I write in more detail about my grandmother and the landscape of my childhood.

In 1969 when man first walked on the moon, my parents, particularly my Father, insisted my brothers and I stayed home from school to watch the landing on TV. I still remember the grainy black, white and grey images.

The Flat And Fanstastic Horizon Oil on canvas 100 x 120 cm 2006

The Beginning Of Everything Oil on linen 90 x 180 cm 2010

The Beginning of Everything previous post

In Unison Oil on linen 92 x 208 cm 2006

In Unison previous post

I did not write much about In Unison in my previous post but regular readers will identify my inspirations. And, there's the moon reminding us of cyclic rythms over time. This painting was sold to a collector in Korea.

Meeting Place Of The Mind Oil on linen 100 x 70 cm 2011

Meeting Place of The Mind previous post

In Meeting Place Of The Mind the morphed male/female figure, synaptic in its connective qualities, is hooked into the universal/mulitversal tune. The phases of the moon are watchful as they shed their varying nuances of light on generative impulses. The moon is more commonly thought of as a symbol of feminine power, with the sun symbolising masculine power. However, there are exceptions in some cultures [some African and American Indian tribes, in Japanese, Maori and some Oceanic symbolism where the moon has a masculine fertilising symbolism]. When I read this I thought of Meeting Place of The Mind where 'mind' is neither male nor female, but a force where life's compulsions become one.

Mother Nature Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm unframed 2011

Previous post

In Mother Nature [above] the female figure, representing Mother Nature, seems partnered with the moon. In this case the moon is a symbol of feminine power. The fulsome light of the moon is reflected in the curves of Mother Nature's womanly body and the vascular/placenta-like branches erupting from her feet. The moon's light reveals Mother Nature' aura, shared with all existence.

Sap Of Life Oil on linen 55 x 80 cm

Sap Of Life previous post

Sap of Life essentially refers to water, the sap of life. As in Meeting Place of The Mind the female figure represents Mother Earth, her aura reflected in the moon's nuanced light. The feminine power to give life with a fertility that flows in an eternity of cycles dances along with the universal song, waxing and waning in timbre. Please read my previous post here

BOOK LAUNCH AND TESTIMONIALS

Just a reminder that my book launch for 'For Everyone: Words and Paintings' is Thursday 23 February! Click HERE for more details.

TESTIMONIALS

Not only is Kathryn a deeply talented, original and inspiring artist, she has a gift for wordsmithing as well! Utilizing the raw power of her art, ‘For Everyone’ is a masterful insight into the very essence of who we truly are, our complexities, our simplicities and who we are meant to be. Dr George Blair-West, Author of The Way of the Quest

In Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox’s book, 'For Everyone: Words and Paintings', the combination of words and images is a gift to the senses. I highly recommend it. Felix Calvino, Author of A Hatful of Cherries

For Everyone is absolutely beautiful and as I read the prose, and looked at the paintings, it was like going on a personal journey of my life. It touched on fond memories of my childhood and reinforced my beliefs in being an individual. As a teacher I know this book could be used in so many ways. In 2011 I organised and ran the Gifted and Talented Program in Writing at my school. Many students in my class published their poetry and stories in an Australian wide writing competition. I am continuing in this position in 2012 and will incorporate this unique book to help my students develop their ideas and be more expressive. The paintings and phrases in For Everyone are great conversation starters. They will also inspire and encourage students to be brave enough to share and express their thoughts and individuality. This book is a fabulous resource for educating and inspiring young people to share the beauty from within! Lou Walsh: Primary School Teacher

BLOGS/SITES OF INTEREST

Here are a few blogs/sites I think are interesting. It's a broad array!

EVERYBODY MEANS SOMETHING

WOLF ART + WORDS

DUCKSMAHAL

MONEYTHOUGHTS

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SYMBIARTIC

QUILTOPIA DESIGN

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com 

SAP OF LIFE

Sap Of Life Oil on linen 55 x 80 cm

The sap of life? What do I mean by this? Well, sap could mean many things, from the literal to the metaphoric. However, one of the most obvious connotations is water. Regular readers will know of my interest in water! And, indeed this new painting was initially inspired by thoughts of water and its life giving and sustaining qualities. These thoughts were also influenced by major concerns many people have [including myself] about threats, posed by coal seam gas [CSG] extraction and expanding coal mines in Australia and around the world, to above and below ground water systems. I have written about these fears previously. [Links below]

But, rather than paint images of destruction, or potential destruction, I believe images which 'speak' more positively and with beauty, have the power to remind us of what we lose if essential life elements are plundered, poisoned and polluted. This reminder surely galvanises intent more robustly than constant regurgitation of images of destruction, mayhem and disaster. The media very successfully keeps us hooked into these kinds of images anyway! I can see no point in art being part of the regurgative and power neutering process.

With its association to birth, water is symbolic of the Great Mother, the divine feminine, the giver of life. Sap becomes a metaphor for the source of everything, manifested and in potential. And, of course, it perfectly resonates with my love of the transcultural/religious tree-of-life.

Using the tree-of-life motif I have placed the Great Mother, Mother Nature, at the centre of 'Sap of Life'. She is the link, the synapse, between two trees-of-life which erupt from her outstretched arms and feet. Each tree is suggestive of the capillary-like appearance of water systems... and vascular ones. The branches of both trees end in white, creating an almost halo-like appearance. This light represents illumination and a forever connection to something beyond. It's up to the viewer to imagine beyond, into the halo!

In the background, the entire canvas is covered with a dark blue tree, which whispers a universal song of quivering energy. The moon, in its various phases, beckons us into the realms of space, reminding us of the pull of its orbital tracking. Indeed, as our oceans dance to the lunar tune and rhythm we experience impulses from beyond.

A snaking white line ribbons across the cavas, weaving its way through the trees. Have you ever seen a river from the air? This line is a river, both literal and metaphoric, traversing across the 'landscape'. It seems to reflect the moon's light as it flows with meandering purpose. All connected...

PEACE AND QUIET

There are, as I wrote above, many connotations for sap. I'll leave it up to you to come up with more. However, there is one I'd like to mention, mainly because it came to me today when I read a short article in The Australian newspaper. The article written by Margarette Driscoll is about a new book called 'Quiet: The Power Of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking' by Susan Cain. The book is about research that shows people are more creative when they have time alone. It apparently refutes the benefits of group work, open plan offices etc in business, schools and so on. Well, can I say, from my own experience... I totally agree! I remember  my first experience of group work in grade 4. It was the mid 60s, and from what I can remember, group work was a new and supposedly innovative way to teach. I hated it! My first feeling of being totally sapped!

The last paragraph of The Australian article is a quote from Cain's book, "Anyone who has ever needed noise-cancelling headphones in her own office or marked an online calendar with a fake meeting in order to escape yet another real one knows what I'm talking about," brings back memories of me sitting in evening prep at boarding school, with ear phones on to keep out the constant chatter and noise created by a hall full of teenage girls, inadequately supervised by young mistresses! I remember the Head Mistress came in one night and I was hauled out of prep with accusations that I was listening to music. Far from it...all I wanted was peace and quiet! I recall the Head Mistress was somewhat chastened when I told her I was wearing ear muffs, that my parents had bought me, because the noise in prep was so distracting. Thank goodness I am an artist and can have peace and quiet, and be on my own whenever I want [well apart from the demands of being a parent as well]!

Peace, quiet and alone time...sap of life!

PREVIOUS BEAUTY POSTS

BEAUTY

BEAUTY AND THE VORTEX

BEAUTY AS A PORTAL

BEAUTY GIVES HOPE A CHANCE

PREVIOUS WATER POSTS

WATER LANDSCAPES

WATER

CURRENCY

AIRSPACE AND PHANTOMS   [This post is the most popular one on my BLOG!]

WATER GALLERY

MURRAY DARLING CURRENCY

Just a reminder that my book launch for 'For Everyone: Words and Paintings' is Thursday 23 February! Click HERE for more details.

..............................................................................................................................................................

NEXT SOLO EXHIBITION

QUIVER

'Sap Of Life' [above] will be in my next solo exhibition QUIVER 18 - 29 April

Graydon Gallery, Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane

Open daily 10am - 6pm

Other paintings which will be in QUIVER are: There will others too.

Elemental Dance

Out There Somewhere

Perpetual Beginning

Breathing Across Time

Quiet Fierceness Of Light

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

ELEMENTAL DANCE

Elemental Dance Oil on linen 55 x 80 cm

 

I hope those of you who read my last post 'Love-Valentine's Kind' enjoyed a bit of fun. Dancing is also fun! It is also transformative in a number of diverse ways. It is great exercise, so can help with weight reduction. It can be a very social passtime where frissons of romance blossom. It can take an individual to places within as they lose themselves in the energy of movement and music. I've seen my daughter dancing in ways which indicate she has lost herself in the moment. I remember the same feelings when I was younger and used to prance around my parents' living room. I have seen how dancing, with the need to remember sequences and work as a team when in a group, assist in alleviating attention deficit issues and sequential thinking blockages. I know dance can express more than words can say...it's like a painting!

The Whirling Dervishes are, of course, one of the most famous examples of the transformative power of dancing and movement. Check out this website for more information. The repeated whirling movement mirroring the revolving or circular motions of the universe within us and beyond to the multiverse.

In the painting above 'Elemental Dance' I have tried to capture Mother Nature's embodiment of life, the quiver, the quake and the jazz! Everything is in a constant state of movement, whether quickened or slowed. Life is a symphony! It is an ongoing one propelled by nature's pulse. The painting below 'Into The Symphony' is an older painting, but 'speaks' of the nuances of life's rhythm.

In 'Elemental Dance' the female figure representing Mother Nature is the link between everything. The two trees-of-life erupting from her head and feet connect her to all seemingly opposite elements. The  red umbilical-like cord which connects her heart with the larger tree-of-life is the universal/ multiversal pulse.

We are dance partners with Mother Nature! Sometimes we take steps that do not synchronise, such as plundering resources in ways that are detrimental to the environment. But, the dance will go on   sometimes with tempo and other times with restorative slow waltzes.

I consider my work at one level to be quite political in a provocative sense rather than an overt one.

Regular readers will know I have written about this before, particularly in reference to beauty. By

harnessing beauty, love and compassion we have the capacity to neuter violent and agressive argument. The very act of harnessing then can be seen as the supreme political act.

BEAUTY POSTS

Lifeblood

Beauty and The Vortex

Beauty as a Portal

Beauty Gives Hope a Chance

Into The Symphony Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2008/09/into-symphony.html

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2008/09/into-symphony-again.html

COUNT DOWN

For Everyone: Words and Paintings

Book Launch!

Details HERE

APRIL QUIVER

17-29 April

Solo exhibition

Graydon Gallery, Merthyr Rd, New Farm Brisbane

QUIVER is an exhibition of new paintings inspired by concepts of Mother Nature. Using the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life symbol, Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox explores distance from the nano to the multiversal. In this distance where perspective, both literal and metaphoric, takes on multi layered dimensions, the quiver …tremble….vibration…of all life reminds us of the shared rhythmic pulse across time and space. 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

P.S. If you are looking for THE perfect Valentine's gift, then make sure you check out 'Love...Valentine's Kind'

LOVE...Valentine's Kind

                                                    Sending Love oil on linen 90 x 180 cm

So, I have decided to be a little light hearted for this post. I've decided to focus on love...yes love....the romantic kind.  Valentine's Day is just around the corner!

I have uploaded a few paintings which I think would make great Valentine's Day presents. Why, because they are about love, some are a little sexy, a couple remind us of the Adam and Eve adventure. That story which is so often very simplistically interpreted eg: man was lead astray by a woman!

So let's begin:
Sending Love above, is my interpretation of love emmanating from a central force eg: heart! The heart is the tree-of-life, which is a symbol of life, itself signified by a pulse...heart!  Love is pure, hence the white and pale tones of the tree and the emmanating light which cascades from it. In my mind, we have the capacity to conjure great feelings of love, and then send this love, as white light, out into the world or to the people we love. Our imaginations hold a force which extends beyond us.

Into My Galaxy Oil on linen 85 x 147 cm

Into My Galaxy...well what more can I say! When in love the 'galaxy' is just the two people who are in love. Their own world, where sparks fly, frisson seduces, time collapses and perfection reigns.  Now, this painting, as it has been pointed out to me, can also be read as the moment of fertilization! Regular readers will know of my great interest in collapsing perspective. So, we have travelled from a galactic perspective to a very intimate internal one. The latter being the moment of life's first quiver, a culmination of an act of love.

Forever Connected Oil on linen 120 x 80 cm

Forever Connected is a painting which 'speaks' about the connections forged by shared stories across time and cultures. On a macro level we all share the same story...the one about how the universe/multiverse was created! Focusing in a little Forever Connected refers to the story of the burning bush and Moses. This story is shared by the three Abrahamaic religions, thus connecting Islam, Christianity and Judaism forever. And focusing n a littel more, the love of two people also forges a connection across time through children and other relationships...and this connection continues even in divorce and after death! 

Compassion Oil on linen 100 x 100 cm

Compassion is a really beautiful painting! It is currently hanging in my sunroom and many people have commented on it. This painting was also selected for the Blake Prize Directors' Cut online exhibition. The paintings selected for this were shortlisted for finalist selection in the main Blake Prize, but did not quite make it. http://www.blakeprize.com.au/galleries/directors-cut

Two trees-of-life meet in a blaze of light, their branches connecting and embracing to form a circle, which seems to be many things at once...an opening to a portal, a crown, an embrace, a celestial entity.

Compassion is a very important ingredient in any relationship, whether it be between countries or individuals. This is the post where I write about my thoughts on compassion and Compassion http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/07/compassion.html

Remembering The reason Why Oil on linen 100 x 70 cm

Sometimes, in a relationship, one needs to remember why. Please check out my previous post HERE

In The Garden of Eden Oil on linen 50 x 94 cm

This is a painting not simply about Adam and Eve, but about men and women. please check out my previous post on this painting HERE 

'She was not made out of his head to surpass him, nor from his feet to be trampled on, but from his side to be equal to him, and near his heart to be dear to him." [Jamieson-Fausset Brown Bible Commentary] Oil on linen 80 x 120 cm

The title of the painting above says it all really...don't you think?

Hot Gouache on paper 15 x 21 cm unframed

So, back to a bit of fun. Hot is a small painting and it is meant to be HOT! Sprouting wings, red, swirling colour...up to you! 

The paintings above range from $300 AUD up to $6,800 AUD [Excluding packaging and freight]

[Prices correct as of 11-1-12, but will change as time goes on. if you are reading this in many months time, please check for updated prices]

AND, I do have many other paintings on my WEBSITE

Some paintings are listed with prices. Please contact me via my website for any price enquiries.

 

AND

Please check out my BOOK LAUNCH SITE

For Everyone: Words and Paintings

NEXT EXHIBITION

QUIVER

17-29 April

Graydon Gallery

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

PS...Please click on the 'share' buttons below if you have Twitter and Facebook accounts...or any other sharing social network membership. It all helps spread the word. Thanking you in advance.

OUT THERE SOMEWHERE

Out There Somewhere Oil on linen 36 x 36 cm

Happy New year to all of you! Bring on 2012.

The painting above is a new one. I've given it a title which comes from the last two lines of a poem written by my grandmother D.E Ross. In 1986 my grandmother and mother, Elsie Brimbelcombe, published an anthology of poems called 'Out There'. At the time of publication my grandmother was 87 years old. She had written poems for most of her life, apparently having her first poem published in a Western Australian newspaper when she was fourteen. Grandma-ma died at the age of 92, so she had a pretty marvelous innings.

Here's the poem I've taken my title from. It is in the anthology and is also called:

Out There By D.E Ross1.

I do not cringe before the opening door
to Outside,
but brace muscle and mind
to meet
the open horizon
its fresher winds
the brighter light
undreamed of in the chrysalis:
each cloud a carriage
each breeze a wing
each star a stepping stone
beyond Time
-before and after-
toward the secret
of its source
and mine.

11.
There are no boundaries
Out There
but the original laws
that devised
creation.
neither north nor south
or east and west,
above
below
or here and there
No tides,
but streams of power forever flowing.
Time is not negotiated
wasted or lost:
an hour rates high in our accounting here:
yet a thousand years
could be held as a breath on the wind
Out There.

111.
There is no waste in God’s economy.
New solar systems
gather grace in space
[along with waste
from our allotted span of influence].
In God’s eternal meld
of warp and woof,
of foul and fair,
we have each one of us a share
in a new heaven and a new earth
aiming for birth
Out There
somewhere.

This poem at one level is about dying. My mother, very bravely recited it my grandmother's funeral in 1991. Yet, as the years go by, and the more I think about the things I think about, I see that it is also about life...or how life could be...with imagination. As I read this poem I sense that the women I paint, as they float across the ripples created by my much loved trees-of-life, are upon 'the open horizon' swept by 'fresher winds' as they shed 'the brighter light' at the same time as they are drawn to it. The women in my paintings represent eternal Mother, Mother Nature, and my grandmother's line 'each star a stepping stone' creates visions of life traversed across the Universe...and indeed possibly the Multiverse.

'Out There' can also be 'read' as imagination. This is particularly conjured in the second stanza of the poem where, 'There are no boundaries', and the simplicity of descriptive compass directions, and the banality of 'above below or here and there' disappear as concepts of boundary and restraint are forsaken to welcome 'but streams of power forever flowing'. Our imagination has the potential to be this powerful force where possibility is entertained and where wonder provokes questions never before dreamed of....and thus answers from seemingly 'out there'! As the poem suggests in the last paragraph, 'we have each one of us a share...in a new heaven and a new earth...aiming for birth...Out There...somewhere.'

Imagination and spirit, seem to me, to be pretty obvious pals!

In the last stanza, my grandmother refers to solar systems and the 'waste from our allotted span of influence'. She was very interested in cosmology and would often take me and my brothers outside to watch the amazing night sky. She knew all the constellations and could identify planets. She was concerned about the waste or rubbish left in space, as well as the detritus polluting Earth. In fact, another poem in the anthology 'Out There' is called 'Residue' and is about the clues our rubbish gives to our character.

Out There in my grandmother's mind, was a place...the capital O and T give this away. But, place does not have to be only physical. It can be in our dreams, in our individual imaginations as well as our collective ones, within our psyche. I love how Out There could be where multiple perspectives, close and far-nano and macro, are experienced simultaneously. As regular readers will know, I have a great interest in concepts of perspective, especially as we need new ways to 'see' in an increasingly gloablised world in which we live locally...also because the Universe/Multiverse is compelling us out there by revealing its secrets.

Multiverse oil on linen 80 x 100 cm

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Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com