A big abstract inspired by black holes and the universe
There’s more than a passing thought to the mysteries of black holes and the universe in this painting.
Like many people, the thought of what lies beyond our earth is a life-long attraction.
So whenever I can use that as a theme to paint with, I jump at the chance.
The universe is full of stuff, despite most of being spread out over vast, unimaginable distances. Perhaps it’s the grandeur and mystery of not knowing that drives us on to look ever upwards.
And though this is not strictly anything to do with stellar formations, star nurseries or black holes it is certainly influenced by them. It’s this theme that led me to the colour choices.
Naturally I am bound to base everything around the black and it’s vast emptiness but to leave it at that is a bit of a cop out, so whilst it is always present it’s never the main focus. Instead I prefer to think about some of the more beautiful and exotic images of gas clouds, distant suns and pulsars for the real heart of the painting.
And in the continuing story of the black it’s also been a deliberate ploy to load it towards one side. I’ve done this because I want to make it feel that light is escaping from the dark, empty black.
Those dusky purples and splashes of fiery orange leap around on the edge of disappearing – maybe a little like an event horizon in a black hole? Anyway, that’s a critical part of the piece as far as I am concerned.
And so to the shapes. There are twists and turns and circles and drags and then there are drops and drips and all manner of tiny details. And as I have thinned the paint in areas to an almost pastel-like shade you get some incredibly delicate tonal shifts bouncing from one application to another.
In some places it’s deep and in others you can see the weave of the canvas underneath. I like to play with densities and I think that’s become even more relevant given the subject matter of the painting. When I think of dust clouds on one hand and iron cores on the other it’s not difficult to see why I decided the paint needed to be a mixture of light and heavy.
Now this one is going to need both natural light and a decent source of artificial light otherwise it’s going to suck the life from a space (not unlike a black hole then?).
So consider that if you like the painting. Realistically it needs a couple of angled spotlights for the evening and either a skylight or indirect light source during the day.
