2022

INTO THE DARK WOOD

Posted by Jane Wheeler

Acrylic, paper, gouache, water soluble crayon on canvas, 2022, 61 x 61 cm

thinking of a writing course I’ll be doing at the Poetry School this autumn term, looking at Dante’s writing. En el bosqué scratched into it and then mostly covered over. A squelchy thick paint palette knife job, but I was frustrated by not being able to find one of my palette knives. Lots of drawing through the paint, lots of gold paint and iridescent orange. More of this – “I’ve torn my scarf into shreds; I’m all wrapped up in a blanket.
I took off my finery of pearls and coral, and strung a garland of wildwood flowers.
With my tears, I watered the creeper of love that I planted;
Now the creeper has grown spread all over, and borne the fruit of bliss.” (Meera Bai)

LETS GO TO THAT LAND

Posted by Jane Wheeler

 

Acrylic, paper, charcoal, linen on canvas, 2022, 61 x 61 cm, the first of a series of nine paintings.

Finding the poems of Meera Bai, a 16th century hindu mystic and saint (through the Junun album, and film of the same name, by Paul Thomas Anderson, made in Jodhpur Fort in Rajasthan in 2015, by Shye Ben Tzur and Jonny Greenwood with Qawwali and other traditional musicians and singers) has brought a new dimension to my painting.

 

these works are about an interior landscape, a different sort of pilgrimage.

Pilgrim trails, ritual walks;
voyages in, an interior path;
imagined geographies, memory maps.
A place within a landscape that corresponds to a place within the heart.

CHALA VAHI DES (LET’S GO TO THAT LAND)
Poetry by Meera Bai
Translated by Shlomzion Kenan & Sajida Ben Tzur
Let’s go to that land, where my beloved shall be found,
If you ask ‒ I shall dye my saree in the colors of flowers.
If you ask ‒ I shall wear saffron attire.
If you ask ‒ I shall adorn my hair with pearls,
If you ask ‒ I shall leave it undone. Meera’s Lord is Krishna,
Hear me, oh King of Kings.
the series’ titles make a poem in response to Meera Bai’s poetry, and the mystic trance music of the Qawwali musicians in the 2015 album Junun.
(All music composed by Shye Ben Tzur
Arranged by Shye Ben Tzur & Jonny Greenwood, Produced by Jonny Greenwood)

List of titles as a poem –

Let’s Go To That Land
Making A Path To The Beloved
To The Field
To Gather Treasure
In The Library Of The Forest
And The Colours Of Flowers
In The Hills
If You Ask –
Where My Beloved Shall Be Found

 

MAKING A PATH TO THE BELOVED

Posted by Jane Wheeler

Acrylic, paper, linen, oil pastel, charcoal, soluble graphite on two canvases, diptych. 2022. 80 x 120 cm.

“I’ve torn my scarf into shreds; I’m all wrapped up in a blanket.
I took off my finery of pearls and coral, and strung a garland of wildwood flowers.
With my tears, I watered the creeper of love that I planted;
Now the creeper has grown spread all over, and borne the fruit of bliss.” (Meera Bai)

This is a painting that was a puzzle for months, until I stuck the large pieces of linen onto it, which freed me up to fit it into this series, give it a subject and a reason to be finished.

IN THE HILLS

Posted by Jane Wheeler

Acrylic, paper, charcoal on linen, 2022, 61 x 61 cm.

This painting came after a birthday walk in the Trossachs, amongst birch woods and hilly sitka plantations, above the river Garbh Uisge, meaning Rough Water. Walking through the birches I got my pocket sketch book out and drew madly which made me feel a bit dizzy. Here there is a feeling of looming hills and promontories, and birch trunks and the river full of rocks.

In the Hills refers to the wish of the painter to be up in the wild places, in the heather and the trees, walking and finding themselves.

WHERE MY BELOVED SHALL BE FOUND

Posted by Jane Wheeler

Acrylic, gouache, water soluble crayon and paper on canvas, 2022, 61 x 61 x 4 cm

Junun is music that is basically Sufi Qawwali from India, with a little help from an Israeli Sufi singer and poet, Shye Ben Tzur, and Jonny Greenwood.  On the album is a poem by Meera Bai, a 16th century Hindu mystic poet, a Bhakti saint, and the line “Let’s go to that land, where my beloved shall be found” inspired this painting. The idea is that the beloved is the god Krishna, and the saint wishes to immerse herself as his devotee.

 

WATERLILY LOCHAN

Posted by Jane Wheeler

Acrylic and gold mica flakes on canvas, 61 x 61 x 4 cm, 2022

This is one of those paintings that looked gorgeous when just finished and then the next day flat and boring, So I had to work on it with layers of glazing on some more translucent blues – pthalo, ultramarine, and deep Australian blue – with some black too. and then the gold mica flakes are specks floating on the surface.

In Assynt in the summer the many little lakes (lochan) on the hummocky Lewisian Gneiss are full of wild waterlilies.

WATER LILY SKY, MORNING LOCHAN

Posted by Jane Wheeler

Acrylic and linen on canvas, 2022, 50 x 50 cm.

There is a lot going on under the top layers of paint in this one, a rectangular piece of raw linen over previous layers … and then the top layer itself is quite three-dimensional, thick and thin, skimming over the surface and then stopping in lumps and squiggles. The final brush marks done with a small brush taped to a bamboo cane, to try to let the brush fly over the canvas. Suggesting water surface and light in some sort of homage to Monet’s Nympheas.