Midnight Sun: Wind Over Grass

From Midnight Sun: Wind Over Grass, 28" x 22", 71cm x 56cm, oil on canvas, 2010.

A painting depicting contact dance - which is... out of the dance studio, for sure, and into the dreamtime! And a solar eclipse, which reminds me of the black light, the midnight sun of the mystics.

When the river runs in bands, water ribbons her arm. Or she dances on rocks across. Those who support uphold everything in the underpainting. What is there to say of wheat fields or grass curling flames? Under the midnight sun strange dreams dance with intent.


This painting took 20 days to complete, from Jan 5th to 25th. Though I did initially work from an old sketch, I discarded it. The images developed, like in a dream, of their own volition organically. The figures and landscape are imaginal. It's finished, even if in 6 months when the oil paint is dry, I add a few details.

                                                    

Once Upon a Time there was a Dreaming Woman

Once upon a time there was a dreaming woman whose dreams were of the moon that the animals sang to.

When the flames came out of the fires in the dark night the people fell like stones and joined the earth.

Afterwards in the great scrolls it was written that a lake arose in the sky and the mountains flew like clouds.

Those who remained knelt before the great healer, a man with white flowing hair and copper woman breast-plates, and received the blessing of the future.

Golden grains of the earth filled the communal baskets of the dreaming woman.

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Dreamtime story I wrote based on the pictures of random Tarot cards at Caro Cloutier's Dreaming in the Dark Series.

                                                    

Still working on Wind Over Grass...

From Wind Over Grass, a painting (click for larger)

Wind Over Grass, 28"x22", 71x56cm, oil paint on acrylic black base, 2010, blocking shape and colour - solar eclipse added. Photographed indoors in window light, no flash.

                                                    

YouTube channel design

I've created a new YouTube channel design for my site there: http://www.youtube.com/user/brendaclews. The background image is from Hubble. It is the spectacular photograph of the birth of stars in a star nursery.

From Device Daily:

"This star shot is described by Hubble-site as the “largest stellar nursery in our local galactic neighborhood.”

According to experts, this group of stars is called the R136, which is only a few million years old and resides in the 30 Doradus Nebula. This Nebula is a “turbulent star-birth region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way.” The 30 Doradus Nebula is the largest and most prolific star-forming region in our galaxy.

Many of what we see as diamond-like icy blue stars are massive constellations that can only be seen in the 30 Doradus Nebula since it is the only nebula that can house such amazingly large group of stars. These “hefty stars,” are believed to transform as supernovas in the coming years.

This shot of the R136 were taken between October 20th and 27th 2009 by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. The blue lights are from the hottest and biggest stars, the green lights are from oxygen and the red lights are from hydrogen."