FIND A PAINTING.

Being aware that when you're on this blog, besides the paintings you see when you scroll down, there is a whole archive of paintings embedded within articles which appear when you click on the year and the month.

Just a helpful reminder of a way (which you probably know anyway) to view a whole page of paintings all together to scroll down and click on one in particular you want to see.  Though it's by no means all of what's in there which however can be accessed via the archive.

Without going straight to the blog, simply type into the Google search or browser: "paintings martin rainbowmaker",  (in that order).  Click the painting you want to view from the collection of 'images'.  Then if you want to go to where it's located on the blog within the related article, click "visit".

This is just a simple reminder of a way of choosing what you want to look at.  From there you can still range around forward or back via the archive.  I'd just like more of what's in there to be easily seen, as well as doing this to retrieve, resume, pick up a thread of blog posting, continuity of flow, sharing what's there for the vibe of it while meanwhile remaining open to to whatever otherwise creative inspiration may hopefully happen and in its own good timeless time.  ~

P.S. "Peace" is this way by the way.  Look up 'Runes'.

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Martin Rainbowmaker

IN THE MEANTIME...

Though there's no need of explanation i am conscientiously aware i haven't penned, painted, or posted anything here for the previous two months.  That's in the context of having sustained constant monthly creative input to this blog for around six years.  While i doubt that anyone noticed absence of posts, i've been meaning to clarify and say i'm still here and haven't gone anywhere.

However, if anyone may have wondered, i wasn't on holiday, quite otherwise.  During an unusually cold and snowy month of March i was promptly taken into the hospital for almost three weeks with pneumonia.  With a tube into my lung the whole of that time draining more than three and a half litres of infected liquid.  Now it's cleared and i've been back at home for a few weeks, recuperating though relatively active hopefully reorienting from a traumatic experience.

I also instantly quit smoking just three months ago due to the urgent necessity of the situation after having smoked for sixty years.  Lost nearly two stone in weight in the hospital and found the food terrible, went without tea or coffee for three weeks as i don't drink fluoridated tap water.  Regaining weight gradually now but with a confusing relationship with food and appetite.  Unsurprisingly it's taking a while for me to rediscover where my source of creative inspiration is at for these as well as other reasons.

In the meantime, i really am hoping to regain the motivation to resume painting and well aware that tobacco withdrawals is a factor affecting the flow.  Sensitive inspiration is very vulnerable to the awareness of the harshnesses and repetition etc. of the human world.  Something that i am lately finding elusive to adequately articulate in the way i mean and writing this is an attempt to remedy somewhat or at least address it.  Being just an informal blog update for now whereas i mostly like to have a new painting to share.

Actually i've never known what i might create next or what's conceivable, but my standards of what's adequate to motivate seem to be more challenging so it's hard to do what i've done before, along with what does it all mean and what to do with it, as well as what to do if it doesn't happen.  But if something happens i'll be glad to share it here.  Meanwhile there are more than six years worth of paintings interspersed through the archives of this site.  It's a bit like a diary except you're more than welcome to look.  ~

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Martin Rainbowmaker

A KISS OF THE SUN.

"A Kiss of the Sun", a phrase heard on the internet in a conversation about 'ascension' or 'kundalini'.  A suitable title for a painting and with thirteen letters signifying transformation.

Or was it talk of an imminent 'solar flash event', originating from the galactic central sun ?  Said to occur every few thousand years.  Elevating all life on earth and beyond to a higher level of evolution.  Yet another concept gone what is ironically called 'viral'.  Backed by diverse prophecies from Vedas to Zoroastrian etc. , as well as  scientific and astronomical theories.  Plus, a growing trail of inevitably glamourized wishful thinking.   

Ironically perhaps with specific regard to the 'solar flash event' and for those who are already familiar with the topic, i recently heard Corey Goode on video bring the stated concept into question by saying that: 'David (Wilcock) thought that way for a while, but it's not the way it was explained to me.' Approximate quote. But surprising perhaps, considering the extent of publicity already given to the idea.

Not intending to discredit as how would anyone really know anyway ? We naturally wish for what we would most like to see, so that when it's presented and corroborated as a likelihood it easily amplifies from being a rumour to become an opinion or cherished collective belief.  There's a lesson of discernment in all this.

Since it's understandably natural enough to by preference feel affinity with a world bathed in the light of peace and freedom.
Rather than the one we know of with its perpetual systemic wars of domination and control. Without dismissing preference as non-acceptance of what is. 

The diversity of sources historically contributing to any pronouncement that something is imminent is complex to discern as is the truth of the thesis proposed. So the 'solar flash concept' resonated primarily imaginatively as creative visual potential, but proved after a few weeks not easy to resolve. So i stopped trying and this image occurred.

Or rather, got off to a very rough start, being a bold leap of just random shorthand for something requiring further methodical attention to overall specific detail. The aim being to create a very calming, uplifting, majestically benevolent image out of next to nothing. With the emphasis on complementary colour harmony, radiance, integration and refinement to the subtlest degree.
So, by way of illustration and wishing to be encouraging to anyone who may find they have a similar daunting mess to transform, here again is the completed painting for contrast and comparison just to show that it is possible.

So it took around thirty-five hours of eight hour sessions over four days to get it right.  With repeated tonal alterations almost too precise to see and depending on the source of light whether natural or artificial.  As with many modifications of minute details and brush strokes too soft and fine to even point to.

A small unpretentious meditative experiment of intention on a 16" by 20" canvas.  Sending a soft radiance out into a mad world of harsh karma-dramas in dire need of a cataclysm-cancelling catalyst of benevolent transformation and  A Kiss of the sun. *  

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Martin Rainbowmaker.

  

TWIN RADIANCE. 1.

A simple post for now.  Due to a continuation of one of those all too familiar in-between phases of what to express and how to orientate to it in a way that motivates.  While wanting only to share something that radiates a bit of light.


Not just that some previous paintings seem to continually call for an uplift in mood and mode, but the awareness that personally and collectively, the human situation, consciousness itself, is in need of a radical infusion of lightness, clarity, and wisdom of a higher order.  A polarization of what we call dark and light is self-evident.

Source of Light. Jan. 2005.

So no wonder if there's an ongoing rumination as to how to integrate this awareness into a painted image without it being a parody of false light or wishful thinking, by contrast with the prevailing emphasis on sensational exposure of yet more of the corrupted dark which was previously hidden. A false dichotomy without any verifiable encouraging news.

Twin Radiance. 1.

Contemplating the intricacies of the conundrum for weeks without resolution or creating anything.  With the so-called Alternative Media regurgitating interminable loops of self-contradictory questionable rumours and 'soon to be disclosed' sordid convoluted intrigues and sensationalized serial shocks and dramas with a quick turn-over interspersed with new-age self-help, contrived contradiction designed to distract and confuse and trap on the time-track of upcoming news.

Meanwhile with regard to catalysts and radiance and previous paintings i retrieved this photo i'd forgotten about.  Painted a decade ago and called Twin Radiance. 1. as i did two versions fairly large on board, both of which someone since bought.  I just have this one photo so, a simple post.  Basically to share as a reminder of peace and harmony and as an icon that radiates a bit of light. *

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Martin Rainbowmaker.

P.S. Regarding comments:  When you click on the white title-heading a comments box will appear at the bottom of the page.  Or click 'comments' at bottom of list on the right.

CASTLES OF CORK.

In a previous post i mentioned 'Castles of Cork'. Three words which in one sense may sound self-contradictory, (an oxymoron) castles being heavy and cork being light.  While the cork referred to here is County Cork, Ireland.

The castles are the subject of a book i was commissioned to illustrate some years ago and titled The Castles and Fortified Houses of West Cork, authored by Michael J. Carroll and published in 2001, with eighteen illustrations.

So i intend to share a few of them here, not only because they were hardly acknowledged, considering the meticulous attention that they took to produce.  Twenty-five hours on each drawing with the flimsiest reference material, no architectural knowledge, and all done with a sable brush not a pen.  While seated on a narrow wooden arm of an armchair for want of an actual chair to sit on, in a substandard house with no daylight.

But also now as something to post on the blog, as i'm in that long-familiar void-like space of not just not knowing what to paint, but also what can be conceived of as having self-validating significance within the limitations of the medium itself.  Always a seemingly insoluble challenge which may be so, since all imaginable visual conceptions have been and are being explored collectively.

Which might be enough to stop anybody in their tracks and opt for improvising on an already existing mode, which is what tends to happen anyway whatever you do, and seeming ironically paradoxical.  Or alternatively to improvise on no preconceived mode at all, which also has been and is being continuously explored globally and comes to the same thing with both predictable as well as sometimes brilliant authenticity.

But architectural illustrations !  Not exactly a mode of choice, have to be a certain way of accurate depiction which has to be drawn in true perspective before dipping a brush into ink.  Very demanding, doesn't come easy, don't know how i did it and don't expect or intend to do it again.  Such meticulous detail, redeemed only by infusing a poetic consistency into every single mark of the brush.  Worth enlarging to see clearly.

At some stage of the project i had a dream recall which which tends to happen only rarely.  In the dream i was floating high above the now barely discernible foundation rubble of all that remains of a specific castle on a wild island.  Then in the dream, descending to view it as it was when originally intact, and from a sideways view.

The very next day the author unexpectedly requested and with little or no reference material but for a description, and no mention from me of the dream, that he particularly wanted a sideways view, naturally enough.  While i tend not to claim to having had an out of body experience, perhaps i did, who knows.

That drawing is the one with the title 'Oilean Beag' (small island) below it in Celtic script.  My apologies for any drawings without titles as i don't have the original artwork, only photocopies from before all titles were added.

But just look at all that stonework detail and every dot in place. Twenty-five hours of it including preliminary tracing layout of composition transferred to paper, meaning i drew each castle three times.

Meanwhile i have a blank canvas still sitting here for a month and no idea what to do with it. Need some colour, don't we all? Especially this time of year. Despite Christmas which i don't celebrate, may the human situation and the whole earth brighten up in all possible and presently inconceivable ways. *

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Martin Rainbowmaker.

P.S.  It would be nice to receive an appreciative comment as i've only had three or four in the past five years of continuous monthly posting.  Like working in an 'ivory tower' ! 
It's simple, just click any white title heading, or the word 'comments' in the list on the right.
Thanks in advance. ~

RAINBOW PLANET.

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

ORGANIC DETAIL. (An improvisation.)

Pondering a possible post, while wondering what words for weeks of waiting on gestation of inspiration worthy of creation. Free flow forever in flux and fluctuation, dissolution and resolution subject to witness of the world with its wars and wild ways willfully oblivious to the prevalence of pollution by toxic solution. Souls seeking to sustain spontaneous access to the source as cause for sacred celebration.

Simply to nurture the creative spark for a candle flame that dispels the dark, to light the way of an unknown track while all of creation is under attack.

In plain language, it's not just that it's exponentially a puzzle of how to conceive a new painting that's not just another replicated version in the mode of something already known, but it's equally challenging to describe in words why that seems to be so.  

Bluntly stated, it's that all that we know as life on earth is under attack from misguided misuse of advanced technology which is damaging the fundamental but unacknowledged web of life.  

The majority of people are still either complacently not aware of the already present many leveled emergency everywhere in air, water, food, and power supply, or if they are superficially aware are in denial and understandably so.  

It's too extensive a subject for me to write about adequately and is not the purpose of this post.  Besides, all relevant information is and has long been freely available and in the public domain, just needing to be assimilated if not digested, and acknowledged and shared openly rather than repressed.  

All i want to do here is make a simple, predominantly visual post for continuity. More specifically to feature and focus on a few selected photos of close-up details of brushwork in previous paintings with the emphasis on organic. Having tried in other posts to describe, perhaps unsuccessfully what the use of that word points to, it probably can't be described anyway without examples.

There is a tendency perhaps for people to take in a painting at a glance and not look deeper into richness of texture and detail where there's often a lot going on in microcosm abstractly.  Depending on how loose or free-form a painting is.  In the process itself since the attention is on the tip of the brush, you'd naturally expect that to be where spontaneous subtleties occur.  Neither contrived nor totally random but integrated organically, sometimes creating worlds within worlds.

For now, just sharing a few close up photos of portions of paintings, hoping eventually to regain some clarity on where the painting process might be going.  Being always in a mode of not knowing, since my relationship with it and what exactly wishes to express itself, being receptive, is vulnerable to what is as well as isn't going on within and around me. 

Currently heightened sensitivity to the man-made and mundane modern environment, awareness of the system and Samsara, people suffering, trends, agendas, and dramas in the world at large.

Which, seeming of late so all prevailing, continual, and extreme, as that which was
hidden is increasingly exposed, interrupts, hopefully only temporarily, the flow of creative affirmation.

Without further elaboration and to sustain a flow, like water around an obstacle or stepping stones across a torrent, bringing to completion a string of close-up images of organic detail.
Plus one more for good luck. Notice the face of the bearded Bard if you can, emerging within the mossy grain of the bark of the oak. *

   

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 Martin Rainbowmaker. 

GAMBLE ON ROSES.

A blank canvas and a blank mind, at least that's a starting point.  Though it's usually quite a while before i proceed to the next stage. Needing an image that could embody a quality of beauty that even that word itself is too jaded by misuse to convey.

In a folder of digital photos, rambling roses in my back yard, originally a mere minimal rasp lost in long grass, and nurtured from next to nothing.  Flourishing and full flowering, blooming June after June.  Seeming suitable i chose to gamble on roses.   

Intricacies of small wildish roses in close-up, convoluted and complex to draw with accuracy. A gamble too, to position and compose with all elements in proportion, true to the photo without loss or distortion.  So the question arose, how to transpose, the photo eight and a half inches high, to canvas twenty inches high ?
I improvised a solution.

While it could be done by eye, a folded paper's edge marked to match the photo on the screen becomes a ruler.  Then folded longways on itself again and again and all divisions equalized.  Marked off as twenty equal divisions adjusted without calculation, being proportional equivalents to twenty inches, and translates to
actual inches on canvas.

Sometimes the best method may be no method at all.  In sharing, a showing is better.  Imagine describing how to tie shoelaces, we'd never get it.  The painting went through intentionally distinct stages over a period of two weeks.  All totally organic, nothing technical.  I confess to never finding it as easy as it may look, and you'd wonder why we do what we do.  Aspiring to be inspired and inspire, seems to involve method.

Preceding paragraphs relate to form and procedure.  Being just one way to form guidelines for following while also augmenting the weave of idiosyncrasies in the drawing's flow that just happen to be there unintended. Ironically impossible to describe, contrive, name, or even point to.  No surprise then, if all these words fall short, when there's no fixed target to speak of.  Jostled in a jumble that's a job to juxtapose, just to share the photo of the painting of a rose.

As with a certain specific visual characteristic of free-form flow which to the casual glance appears random and disorganized.  Whether you care to call it Tao, or naturalness, a description of which is not the phenomenon itself.  Subtlety seemingly invisible to rational sight.  Felt with the faculty with which we evoke images in the embers, creatures in the clouds, and facial features within foliage.

 Round off this ramble that arose around a gamble on a bramble.  Improvising on the most suitable image immediately at hand.  Something most structurally suited to epitomize a certain fresh, clean, and serene benevolent vibe.

Demystify and share the process in a way that may be helpful.  Using words as an aid to convey elusive but relevant known qualities in the realm of art and perception.  Ironically as always, but naturally so, there seem to be no adequately exact words to represent salient qualities so subtle as to be beyond categories of common classification.  Which may well be true of almost everything, as is often said, 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'.

To which i might alternatively add:  'The essence of art is present in heart when he 'the beholder' is absent'.  A sentence to contemplate closely.  The insight lost in the noise of a busy world, expressed as art.  ~

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Martin Rainbowmaker.