‘Alone & Isolated’. Chalk pastel & pen
The Covid 19 Pandemic 2020 Lockdown: Three Paintings Inspired by Personal Feelings
‘Isolated and Alone‘ (2020) (see above) is the first of my three pandemic inspired works is a creation of form, any form, within a void, trapped, bewildered and unsure. The uncertainty reflects itself in the glazed eyes of a confused image. Hidden in the undergrowth the facial form ponders and presents an image cocooned in disbelief. This form represents a personal awareness of an inner thought pattern. The painting is representative of the Symbolic Movement and reflects deep despair.
Worked in chalk pastel, the image is dark and foreboding; the thicket of ivy and rosehips deliberately flows down to the left and the tilted head takes a central harmonious turn inwards towards the swirling white tracery on the right, deliberately shortened, thus producing a formulated circular flow.
‘Looking Out from Within’. Pencil & pastel
In the second work, titled ‘Looking Out From Within‘ (2020), (above) the trapped image is locked in an uncertain void, gazing upwards in self-doubt. Hidden in undergrowth, the image is frozen and transfixed.
Worked in chalk, pastel and pen, the leaves have been overlaid with original stamped loom cards from the weaving mills in Yorkshire. Here, the symbolism is endless gloom and fear.
‘Organized Chaos’. Chalk pastel, watercolour & pen
The final work, ‘Organized Chaos‘ (2020), (above) is a rendering in chalk pastel, watercolour and pen and illustrates an uncontrolled surge of energy. The image, bottom right, suggests an unsure person in deep thought, the eyes reflecting a state of despair; the focus is on self-doubt – but yet there is a vision of hope here, too.
The swirling wind gusts in a hectic curve down to the right, and, blowing freely towards the top left the wind casts shadows amongst the trees in evening light. The chaos is ceaseless, frantic and constant.
The three paintings represent a transformation of inner feelings and insecurity, but enlightened in the third work by a patterns of positive images from my mind.
The thought connections come from a variety of sources, especially Botticelli’s works in the Italian Renaissance, the mystique of ‘Primavere’ (1478), and the Pre-Raphaelite, Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s ‘La Pia de Tolomei’ (1868). Such connections were an inspiration in mystical format and symbolic thought for me.
Ray Vintner
See also the main profile of this artist at Ray Vintner