Back in January I wrote a blog called ‘Threads of Silence and Time’ which described some revelations I had had. I also mentioned the way thoughts and work sometimes meet themselves in full circle and themes recur in a reassuring way. I am happy to say that I continued following this thread and the resulting body of work has become an exhibition at Darl-e and the Bear gallery in Woodstock, Oxfordshire called ‘Colours of a Day’.
The name for the exhibition came from the title I had given to seven paintings I created as a series. Each painting represents a different time of day. They are called Colours of a Day 6am, 8am, 10am, Noon, 2pm, 4pm and 6pm. What I wanted to do was create a recording of a day through the use of colour. The inspiration for the colours I used came from the many years I have absorbed and observed how a day progresses in the place I live. Over the course of time I have seen many many different types of day but in the months leading up to the paintings I made, there were some common themes.
Painting one is called 6am and describes the intense pink that can fill the sky just for a few minutes as the sun begins to break through over the horizon. Painting two depicts the intensity fading and the more muted lilac and blue hues that spread across the sky. 10am the clouds have come over and there’s a short sharp rain shower. At Noon the sun is high in the sky and stillness has overcome all the activity and flux from the morning sunrise and weather. At 2pm the light is less intense but the stillness remains. By 4pm we can see colours entering the scene again and changes start to happen more quickly and then at 6pm there is a blaze of fiery red, orange and pink as the sun sets and the sky explodes into its intense farewell.
You can watch a video of me talking about ‘Colours of a Day' - Noon’ on the Darl-e and the Bear website.
The interesting thing to me is the capture of time in these paintings. They are a series of moments or periods of time which, when viewed together create a timeline. The paintings could almost be seen as the frames of a film or the story board for an animation. This recording of time has fascinated me for as long as I can remember. Even as a child I remember being glued to the tv if time-lapse photography was being shown or animations being demonstrated which is also the breaking down of movement into short bursts.
In talking about ‘Colours of a Day - Noon’ in the video, I refer to the stillness in the middle of the day. On bright sunny days I often experience this awareness that everything has stopped, or slowed down dramatically. All the excitement happens at the beginning and the end of the day. I often find myself feeling restless during this time and long for the action to start up again. However, as has been a recurring theme for me and I need constantly reminding, these pauses are vital. This painting of Noon is a reminder to me that these moments (however long a moment is) of stillness are a gift to us. Without the stillness, the activity becomes relentless and exhausting. Without the activity the stillness becomes relentless and draining. Nature provides us with a beautiful framework to remind us to dance to her rhythm. Otherwise we find our lives will always feel somewhat out of sync and jar against the flow. Obviously our rhythms will not follow these timings, this is just an example of how our lives need ebb and flow, action and rest. We know full well that we can’t keep going and going and going without stopping to catch our breath, even better is to remember to breathe well before we are gasping. Stillness is the place we hear things and have creative thoughts. It is the place we appreciate everything the activity has achieved. It is the place imagination can thrive.
Be still, sometimes.