Tammuz
Oil on linen on MDF
88x88mm
$120
sold
sold
This one was painted during the same session as the Dead Leaf. I have grown particularly fond of the pigment Nickel Titanate recently. It is a yellow colour. Normally I tend to use the cadmium yellows and at first I didn't like the nickel titanate at all. It always takes a while to appretiate a pigments intinsic qualities. Compared to all the other yellow pigments available to artists, it seems to be relatively opaque, and I find myself almost using it like a white pigment to mix tints with other colours. For the pale green background of these recent paintings (which is in fact a small sheet of note paper), I am mixing the titanate yellow with green earth, another subtle pigment I once could see no use for.
As for the subject, I deliberately aranged these matches in the form of a cross. Many people will view this as a strongly Christian religous symbol, but like many other Christian symbols it is a lot older than Christianity.The Babylonians had a god called Tammuz and the cross, in the form of the initial "Tou" or our "T", was a natural association. He was seen as a life/death/rebirth diety. All my painting is largely autobiographical in nature and I do seem to have this theme of the
transition between life and death a lot on my mind lately.
Hi Paul,
ReplyDeleteFor a long time I have been enjoying your paintings. This cross tell me also that we cross the fingers when we want something good happens. At least in Brazil we used to do this. It´s kind of belief. The cross always was a form that please me. This one is good, the green color is very beautiful. I like this cross a lot.
Hi Maria, thank you for your comment! I'm glad you are enjoying the paintings and this one in particular. Yes, we also cross our fingers for ggod luck!
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