Beauty is held at bay by collective obliviousness to its sordid absence in man-made environments.~
Previous to completing this painting, Rainbow Planet, in mid-November 2017 i hadn't painted anything for just over three months, though that was always often the case. To have a complete blank on what to express, or even why, while it being a natural part of the process can still be disconcerting. To most people this would sound meaningless and like nothing, but that describes what it feels like, as if there's a limit to what's possible.
Especially when a sense of self is identified with what one does, it's like a loss of self-identity. The more so in the absence of other meaningful links with circumstance and environment. Without the bonds of kin or community there is awareness of emptiness a challenging soil to grow from.
Out of nowhere and not-knowing came the notion of a Rainbow Planet as a potential concept of an image that may embody some significance or at least a benevolent vibe. Since beauty is held at bay by collective obliviousness to its sordid absence in man-made environments. Perhaps a painting can serve the role of catalyst. Hesitant for days however to approach such a thing. How would it work or would it be a mere meaningless mess? Needing something new to do to break the impasse.
Then one day i simply drew a measured line and that was a horizon,and took it from there, refining the tone of distance within the blue range of the rainbow.
Originally there was to be a central sun, but the radiance effect proved problematic, blending from white through yellow into the blue while avoiding green, as it takes orange to complete the progression. So i obliterated it and made it a huge nearby planet instead. Indicating this is an aerial view of another world, and that's a river not a road. No need for roads when you can fly.
Painting for eight hours and more at a stretch, over a period of three days. With a fine brush minimally modifying tonal details of distant terrain. Microcosmic whispers of precise pigment barely discernible by electric light, niggling nearly to the point of nothingness. The process slow and in the light of day can seem as if that was energy wasted. But persisting till it's 'good enough.'
In imagination we sail in silence out across a vastness to infinity bathed in radiance of rainbow waves above strange and shimmering sunlit planetary plains pristine and unstained, sparsely populated random scatterings of dome clusters, distant temples, pyramids, a magnificence and ambiance of sublime timeless peace all pervading... and why not? There must be billions of such realms out there. In an infinite multiverse of dimensions everything imaginable and infinitely more already eternally is, since by its nature is implied there is nothing that is not. *
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Martin Rainbowmaker
