‘The Reign of Smaug’
is a powerful and intense painting full of rich colours and shimmering gold
130cm x 130cm (51″ x 51″)
Continuum
£3200
‘The Reign of Smaug’
What is this?
The Reign of Smaug is a square original abstract that fuses together purple, teal, orange and pink. It’ was created using the world’s only twin-axis rotating platform and you can see how it was done by watching this video of it being painted.
The inspiration behind it is the series of books by J.R.R. Tolkien and in particular the dragon called Smaug. So here we have a series of gold and orange paint layers with that rich, velvety purple as the main base colour (just because I like it!).
The painting had a very interesting creative journey as you can see from the video – in fact it didn’t start out life like this at all. But with the help of some tech and a mind that can see far ahead this is what came out and I couldn’t be more pleased! After all, I am a huge Tolkien geek!
The importance of gold
If you’ve seen the Hobbit movies or read the books you’ll understand how important gold was to Smaug the Dragon. A mighty beats who coveted the gold of Erebor more than anything. He knew it’s worth right down to the last ounce so when Bilbo Baggins stole a single cup from hi hoard he knew instantly.
So including it in this painting was an absolute must. It’s shimmering qualities bely a rich, deep luster that reacts with its surrounding colours in the most incredible ways. In fact it features heavily in most parts of the painting but its inclusion becomes a lot more subtle as you move around the painting.
What happens when you look at it
Now, although this is an abstraction and therefore shouldn’t really have any references to real world things within it, it’s impossible not to see the flames from Smaug in the orange paint flows that shoot across the canvas. In fact, I’m sure you can probably feel a lot of other references in there now you know that the subject matter was a mythical dragon who coveted gold.
If you’re familiar with the The Hobbit then you’ll also know that Smaug flew to Laketown to destroy it and I can definitely see him soaring across the lake in the painting, fire everywhere. I can also see brightly coloured jewels and other precious things when I look at this.
Gold and purple are such rich, regal colours that I automatically thing of kings and queens and all the trappings of wealth that goes with that. So not only do we have an homage to one of the greatest fantasy books of all time but we also have a painting with stunning colours, powerful movement and an engaging back story.
Let’s talk…
Drop me a line and I will get back to you as soon as is humanly possible!
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