Sculpture Painting 5 - Pedrada
This painting has five flutes placed against a fan shaped background.
The title Pedrada means ‘stoned’, and tries to make a social comment against the practice of stoning that still continues in the world today. My idea was to try to paint a picture which shows the beauty and above all the innocence of dance, music and the female form. Responding to music and making music are activities that humans have made since the beginning of time. The painting includes two flutes which reproduce Cantiga No. XXX, with its music and poem, a prayer, which asks for the intercession of the Virgin. The Cantiga is from the Cantigas de Santa María, from the Libro de la Música de Alfonso X. The colour range is limited to a range of blues in reference to celestial domes, with gold painted details, pearls, pebbles, ruby cut-glass, and silver bells. The background is reminiscent of celestial domes which were painted from medieval times in chapels and castles, depicting astrological and astronomical symbols and constellations. I have painted the astrological symbols of the star signs, plus an astrolabe. The astrolabe symbolises for me the unity of mathematical and spiritual knowledge, sometimes thought of as incompatible. It was both a tool for determining position and time, and a symbol of knowledge, and status due to its material value. Simple mariner’s astrolabes were used as precursors to sextants, to determine position and direction at sea. The background therefore represents the world in its variety, all types of people, and the wealth of knowledge that it contains as a whole. |