Wandering Mist » acrylic painting

Soul Freedom Chained – Khalil Gibran on Freedom

ishrath — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 09:48:25 +0000

Soul Freedom Chained - Acrylic Painting on Paper

Soul Freedom Chained
Acrylic on Paper
12″ x 18″

And an orator said, “Speak to us of Freedom.”
And he answered:

At the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom,

Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them.

Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.

And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment.

You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief,

But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.

And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around your noon hour?

In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle the eyes.

And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free?

If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead.

You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges, though you pour the sea upon them.

And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.

For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their won pride?

And if it is a care you would cast off, that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you.

And if it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.

Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape.

These things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling.

And when the shadow fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light.

And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.

The Prophet
by Khalil Gibran

Perseverance – The Law of Nature

ishrath — Wed, 26 May 2010 09:31:23 +0000

“Never give up. Never, never give up!
We shall go on to the end.”
Winston Churchill

Perseverence - The Law of Nature

Perseverence
Acrylic on Canvas
18 x 24
Varnished Finish

Perseverence – steady persistence in adhering to a belief, resilience, and patience is what we see in nature.

“In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins- not through strength but by perseverence.”
H. Jackson Brown

This painting happened in my mind when I was gazing at Free Within – with its deep earth and the sky above. I could see a tree there – wanting to come out of the crevices. The tree in my thought was high, mighty, big and bold. Its strong branches stood tall against the deep forest greens. Its roots were strong within.

So, I set out to finish it – as I saw it. Thick modelling paste gave me the freedom to deepen the roots on canvas. Knife slided deep into earth in gay abandon. It always feels good when ones visions get translated on canvas – even if they are not true representation.

Modelling Paste on Canvas for added Depth

But midst the root formation, the joy stopped. Something did not feel right. The tree refused to be born on the canvas. Chopped and uprooted trees is what I saw. That is the reality we live in. At that moment, all I could see was a tree stump. The stump remained on the canvas. Dead. Silent.

“Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky.
We fell them down and turn them into paper, that we may record our emptiness”
Kahlil Gibran

I let the paste to dry. Nothing felt right. In vain, I looked up to the tree for answers. I could never give up on it or abandon it.

The mighty tree did not give up either. Its destiny was not to remain to rot. It refused to die.

It gave birth to new saplings from within. What I thought of painting as dead was living within. The little plants made themselves out of the earth’s crevices.

My earlier painting, Free Within, now seems complete.

: Roots – that dont give up. Acrylic Impasto Details

“He who has hope has everything”
Arabian Proverb

Nameless and Faceless – An Impressionist Painting in Acrylic Media on Paper

ishrath — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:45:08 +0000

Nameless and Faceless - Acrylic Media on Paper

This painting, Nameless and Faceless, has been inspired by a photo I had seen long time back. Though I remember nothing more than that, something about it stayed on for long… its form, colors, composition and the whole emotion that it conveyed; I have tried to convey the same with a palette knife. I could never come with a name for this painting for I can never justifiy it enough. So for now it remains, Nameless and Faceless.

I would be glad if I can see that inspiring photograph once again and also get to meet the person behind it who got so many things right in a single frame.

This is one of my favorite paintings with shades of blue, browns, ochre, indigoes and black. The subject and the composition may be cliched but the knife strokes are not. For me, these are the soul behind every painting as the emotion laden strokes can never be copied or reproduced. I think thats the beauty of any original painting and that you cannot really reproduce any work of art. And if you do, it is like a beautiful body without the soul.

My friends always complain about the dark nature of my paintings. They always ask me if I can come up with something happier. I think these paintings are just another way of celebrating life. And I do not find anything dark or depressing about them.

There seems to be more joy in these deeper shades and hues.