A painting’s journey

Paintings have a life or ‘mind’ of their own. One such is The Cave of Knowing, which is one in a new series about Places of Power (working title).

I have learned over the years of painting when to take control and when to surrender to the artwork. Some paintings fight you back when you try to take them in a direction you want. Other times the process is so subliminal, the artwork slowly emerging, forming and settling before your eyes.

Cave of Knowing - early draft

Early drawing with landscape emerging

I often step back and think where has this come from? Sometimes I know immediately with a kind of ‘ah hah moment’ but other times it’s not until much later I understand the source of my inspiration.

Even more startling and validating is when I see the new work has a connection to others and that I have a new series. That is what happened with the series Places of Power.

Cave of Knowing - draft painting V1

Here are four images of the Cave of Knowing, starting with a loose abstract colour study on paper, then a more controlled drawing where a landscape began to take shape. From here I took over and directed, sensing this was a surreal landscape with a perspective of looking out from a deep cave to a far shore. As the painting went through several more drafts I sensed the cave walls were made of pounamu, New Zealand greenstone.

Cave of Knowing final painting

The fourth image (above) is the final painting, where the image settled. It has become very still, admittedly losing some of its earlier movement. However, I believe the stillness of the image helps to convey the feeling of power and timelessness, which is what I wanted. A companion painting in the Places of Power series is The Lava Tree of Regret which also has this atmosphere of timelessness, stillness, and power.