AURORA Painting

This painting is acrylic on canvas. It is framed with a natural timber float frame. It is part of a collection is inspired by the deep silence in Antarctica, a silence so thick it’s palpable. Sleeping in the snow on the white continent one night, the artist was woken by the magnificently terrifying sounds of a glacier calving. Deep silence was punctuated by the sounds of ancient ice folding in on itself, violently breaking off, and dissolving into the sea. Antarctica was making herself heard. Her voice was striking and spoke to the artist on a level deeper than skin and bone. The poem written over the painting with paint pen is an original Hardcastle poem. It speaks to her experience of being lost in Antarctica, lost in a way that isn't about physical dislocation, but rather opening the door to the unknown and surrendering to the darkness. Hardcastle writes about the shock of an impossibly black sky, felt like a bolt of lightning from the inside. It is a sky that is as stunning as it is terrifying.