Living With Distance Diptych 120 x 160 cm
Over the last week I have been posting some older paintings on Instagram . I've also posted some to Facebook. These paintings are from my early 2000s bride-in-the-landscape series. And, something strange and pleasing has happened...people are responding to them in slightly different ways to responses I received 13 or so years ago. Did people like them years ago? Yes, but not quite in the same way.
BRIDE-IN-THE-LANDSCAPE
The painting above Living With Distance reminded me of some of the weather maps/images we Australians have recently been viewing with great interest. Cyclone Marcia hit the coast of Queensland, at Yeppoon, last week, causing great destruction. The accompanying heavy rains have caused flooding across the central and inland coast. Interestingly, when I uploaded this painting to Facebook and Instagram, I had one person comment that it looked like a weather image. This person is from California! I was thrilled that someone had picked up on what I also had seen in my own work.
When I painted Living With Distance I was thinking about the young brides who follow their rural-based husbands into the distance of geographical isolation. However, I was also 'playing' with the idea of distance within a relationship.
Assimilation Oil on linen 80 x 100 cm
Assimilation is also reminiscent of a weather map/image. The bride's form seems to becomes the indicator of water flow or cloud cover! When I painted this I was thinking about the country bride who becomes absorbed by the land. Her life depends on the ebbs and flows of the landscape...AND the weather. She also becomes part of a community where women are a force of spirit and involvement in everything from the arts, education, welfare, health and well being.
Flying Oil on linen 80 x 120 cm
Memory Oil on linen 80 x 100 cm
FLYING
The four paintings above all have a hovering or flying theme! The bride and her spirit watch from above, yet she is intrinsic to the patterns and rhythms of the land. In Flying the bride is like a cloud. Her shadow is cast across the landscape which she is a part of, but also separate from. Her presence has influence. It's as if she is a custodian or symbolic of Mother Nature looking after her Earth.
In Memory the bride and her young self as a child hover over a landscape that is cosmic in appearance. Maybe this is one of my early cosmic paintings...and I was not even aware of it until NOW! The phases of the moon symbolise the passing of time. The bride reflects upon the dreams she had as a child. Or, maybe the child is projecting into the future?
Life Oil on linen 80 x 200 cm
A DECADE ALONG
So, why are my bride-in-the-landscape paintings resonating with people in a slightly different way to ten or more years ago? There could be a number of reasons. A lot can happen in a decade. Here are some considerations, off the top of my head.
- With the deluge of imagery on the internet and social media available today, maybe we are generally more aware of patterns across such things as weather maps and bride-in-the-landscape paintings?!
- We currently have a heightened awareness of domestic violence, and whilst my paintings are not about domestic violence, the vulnerability of the bride symbol does affect people, even subliminally.
- We also have heightened discussion about same sex marriage. The idea of marriage is being re-negotiated, albeit slowly, on social, religious, political and economic fronts.
- I have daughters and I am aware that young women today are balancing many considerations against those that could be considered more traditional dreams, such as marriage and children. I am also aware that young men are taking part in these discussions. The latter is probably the thing that seems so different to when I got married, for instance!
- Due to the internet, non-stop news, social media etc there is more awareness of the status of women in other cultures. These include traditions of marriage. And, some of these shock us.
- And another possibility at a subliminal level. Maybe the vulnerability of Earth's sustainability seems more fragile when a bride's presence evokes purity and the call to Mother Nature?
The paintings above are only a selection of my bride series of work.
With International Women's Day next week, I will post some more of my bride paintings. Also, I have some exciting news about a painting and a UK publication! Shall keep you informed.
TESTIMONIES
My Mum's exhibition Testimonies is up! Here are the details.
My Mum, Elsie Brimblecombe, has been exhibiting her paintings for a few years now. She is inspired by the written word. Each of her exhibitions has been themed to a particular writer and book/poems.
This year's exhibition is a series of paintings inspired by the modern Greek poet Yannis Ritsos . The two paintings below will be in Elsie's exhibition.
Place: Upfront Club - 31 Maple St, Maleny, Queensland, Australia.
Dates: 20 February - 18 March 2015
Please check the Upfront Club for opening times - they open from 7.30 am 7 days - you can have breakfast, lunch, dinner, morning and afternoon tea there, but just check what days they open till late etc. They also have live gigs there, so you could combine seeing some art and listening to music!
Cheers,
Kathryn
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