The Heavens Opened

It turns out the break from painting and the increase in architecture work may have altered my ability to paint, or at least to paint to my own satisfaction. My latest work definitely pays homage to the cliché of a game of two halves - behold the aptly named 'The Heavens Opened'....

The Heavens Opened

Aptly named for two reasons:

1. The obvious fact it depicts space and,
2. The fact I had a massive outpouring of rage when I was painting it.

If you look closely there are clues showing you that this was originally a painting of something else -  a small piece of bamboo to the middle right edge, the orange leaves tracing along the bottom of the canvas. I was painting a more traditional landscape of trees, the sun, a cliff and a large wave until I got so frustrated all I could do was stab, smear and splat paint all over the canvas.

And then cover half of it in black.

Fortunately after I got this out of my system I was considerably calmer and I had a brainwave, a spark of inspiration, an idea and I felt as though the picture could be resurrected. Mountains, on a starry night, an alien landscape capped by the milky way and it must be detailed, dots, red ones, white ones (Lichtenstein is that your fault?).

So an angry, spontaneous, expressionist lower half followed by a calmer, more relaxed, in control and detailed top half.  Not necessarily two things that go together but I was pleased with how it eventually turned out. 

It wasn't until I finished and was thinking back that I noticed my choice of music was peculiarly reflective of the two separate painting halves and styles.

I painted the expressionist, 'angry' half to Anna Calvi:

The detailed more serene top half to the Maccabees:

Tell me that isn't a little bit weird........