The Sacrament Painting

This is a larger mixed-media painting consisting of two canvases, each measuring 150 x 100 centimeters (3 x 2 meters total). The main medium is pure liquid pigment with oil paint used in certain places. Textures are achieved using pieces of canvas glued on the surface and gathered to form deep creases and wrinkles. This accentuates the tactile, fleshy, organic feeling that pervades the atmosphere and feel of the painting. The entire composition - all shapes forms and details - were first drawn directly onto the canvas using soft, fine-tipped brushes in black before applying any colour at all. (1) This was a major shift in style compared to my prevailing work of the previous few decades: a return in fact to the pure linear draftsmanship that characterized my earliest work, even as a student. For me this represents a kind of revival or reclamation/renaissance - a conscious and deliberate celebration of the virtuosity as a draftsman that has been mine since a young boy. The imagery is primarily inspired by a totally random selection and juxtaposition of mythical creatures and iconography from a plethora of historical and cultural sources. These have been altered, processed, transmuted, and orchestrated according to my own style and visual syntax and lexis. Nothing planned in advance. The creative process is entirely intuitive and improvised. As the composition emerges there is a spontaneous ordering, emphasizing and de-emphasizing, alteration or obliteration followed by reworking of the elements and principles of art.(2) When introduced, colour gradually takes over from detail, the atmosphere becomes hot; almost suffocating. As some form of ease from the intensity of figuration and heat there is an instinctual need to blend and elaborate lighter and darker shades and hues. The roughly square, white, film screen like shape on the far right offers an additional degree of neutrality and relief for the eye and soul: a place to rest. The ‘Ouroboros’: the red reptile coiled into a circle eating it’s own tail upwards of the center becomes the focal point of the whole ‘Sacrament’.(3) The High Priest or Sharman above (left) communes with, blesses and placates the ‘Ouroboros’ while sprinkling some kind of Holy or magic water on it’s head. Inside the reptilian circle the horned skull of a mythical creature resembles the skull of a horse or ram. Growing into or from it’s head are horns, or are they roots or branches perhaps? "The Ouroboros… the central snake that’s consuming and consummating: his motifs echo images ranging from ‘The Last Judgment’, Hindu Heaven and Hell, along the death-defying ‘Day of the Dead, representing the dialectic between birth, death, and the love of life etched with his exotic excremental and earthy eroticism." Jeff Sawtell – former editor The London Morning Star. The head of this immortal being reminds me of the sun bleached skulls of dead horses that adorned the roadsides as I passed through the deserts of northern Mexico as a young wanderer long ago. This skull is echoed by the two equine/goat heads of the naked anthropomorphic figure on the left (4) who stands protected from the heat inside a smoky shroud of cool viridian green. The ‘Sacrament’ is ritual and cataclysm, rite and ceremony, forfeit, atonement and celebration. But to or for whom or what? The process of working on ‘The Sacrament’ repeatedly invoked Carlos Castaneda’s words: “For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable….”.(5) I hope to inspire the viewer in this direction. But, like dreams, for each viewer other interpretations may be suggested, inspired, awoken or provoked and relevant according to his or her own experiences and predilections. (1) See Evolution of the Sacrament in New Work - www.brucesherrattpaintings.com (2) Element and Principles of art: lines, forms, shapes, textures, colours, spatial relationships, positioning, composition, balance, rhythms, expression and so on. (3) Sacrament: Definition- rite, ceremony, ritual, service, mass, reparation, self-punishment, forfeit, atonement, apology. (4) See details of the original sources- Evolution of the Sacrament in New Work - www.brucesherrattpaintings.com (5) Carlos Castaneda: Journey to Ixtlan.

Multi-paneled Painting:Oil on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:118.1 W x 78.7 H x 1.6 D in

Number of Panels:2

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.