As I wrote in a post last week, the idea of home has been a large component of my recent work. For some, it is a physical place and for others it is simply the sense of being at home, a feeling that may be prompted by something that triggers memories of a time when they felt at ease and completely secure. It’s probably different for many people and I’m not sure it matters how one defines home for themselves.
For me, the important part is that the idea of home is a universal theme, one that we all identify with in our own lives. We all seek the safety and comfort of home however we define it. And it’s this seeking for something that is so vaguely defined that interests me as an artist. It’s such a strong drive in us that it raises many different images in our minds.
This new painting, which I’m calling Led Home, deals with this idea of home as an elusive quest. The house stands in the distance with a road leading to it through a field of golden grass. Above, the sunlight breaks through the broken sky to act as a sort of beacon guding the seeker forward. The tree and the path in the foreground are almost in shadow as though the discovery of home signals a transition from darkness into light.
The house, like many of those used in my work, is without windows or doors. I’m never positive why this is so but perhaps, given the short expalnation above, it is because it is representing something vaguely indefinable, soemthing we can’t really see in full detail in our minds. I don’t know for sure– that just came to me as I wrote this.
This is just one way of looking at this piece. How I see it this morning at first glance. Perhaps it will change in definition for me with time but I doubt it– those first glances tell a lot about a piece and tend to hold the most truth.
The painting is a 10″ by 30″ work on canvas.
Redtree Times 