Be

 
 

Be

This is the last in the Octave series. Be. It brings the series to a close with a neat sequence of eight. In Christian circles, eight is a good number – the first day of the week, the day when Jesus met his friends after his death. Many church objects are eight sided, bringing a sense of completeness to otherwise incomplete lives. This painting also completes the colour series, bringing all the colours together. If all colour is mixed together, the result is either black or white. Coloured light mixes together to make white light and coloured paints/pencils mix together will make black. Well, they make black if all the colours are perfect, but they’re not. So the result of mixing all the colours of paint together is brown. Here they are – all the colours to make lots of browns.

In Be, the browns remind us of the colours of human beings. Instead of purple and yellow and orange and green, people are combinations of all colours. Be shows us a variety of human colour, weaving in and out of each other, the ebony and peach and beige and chocolate, not able to be contained in any one box. There are little moments of the pure colours and flashes of gold.

Be speaks to us of acceptance, of simply being who we are, where we are, with all of our variety. None of us is easy to define, no one of us is only the one who waits, or leaps or calls, or chills, or flies or watches. We are all made up of everything and have so much more alike than we have different.

Octave ends with the statement:

Hear well, watch peacefully, fly when you think you can’t, chill when you feel worried, call and expect to be heard, wait with attention, leap for all you are worth and in the end, be you.

Original in private collection

 
 

Please contact me if you would like prints. The following formats are available. All prints on paper are sold on ivory mounting board. Frames may be ordered. Prints on canvas are stretched on wood.

Art Prints: Art Prints are created with laser printers onto quality wood pulp art paper.

Gallery Poster: Gallery Poster is a typical art gallery format with laser printer on poster paper, supplied rolled in a tube.

Giclee Prints: Giclee Prints are inkjet sprayed onto quality cotton rag paper. They’re known for their vibrant colours, fine details, and archival quality. The term "giclee" comes from the French word meaning "to spray," referring to the precise inkjet spraying process used in their production. They’re guaranteed to last at least 100 years (though no one’s been alive long enough since development to know…)

Embellished Giclee Prints: Embellished Giclee Prints are customised by me adding details, textures, or hand-drawn elements to make each cotton paper print unique. The result is a print that combines the advantages of digital printing with a personal touch.

Giclee Prints on Canvas: Giclee Prints are inkjet sprayed onto artist canvas material. This gives the print a texture and appearance similar to a traditional painting on canvas so that they resemble original paintings.

Embellished Giclee Prints on Canvas: Embellished Giclee Prints on Canvas are customised by me adding details, textures, or hand-painted elements to make each print unique. Embellishments added on top of canvas give the print a more three-dimensional painterly effect.