Thoughtful Accumulation

 Aurora Awakens 

The Clemengold Auction

'Aurora Awakens' | 100 x 70 cm | Acrylic on Canvas

June 2017. Alex and Zelda Hamilton invited me to participate in "Dawn breathes gold / Die oggendstond het goud in die mond”, a Charity Art Auction sponsored by Clemengold. 15 Artists made 15 diverse works and I was very excited, high on the successes of the Woordfees exhibitions. And Since my painting 'Die blou van onthou' was so well received, I decided to do something in the same kind of layout, a complex but rather traditional still life, with quite a few complicated textures to challenge me.

The snippet that inspired me most, from Zelda's initial email to participate in 'Dawn Breathes Gold':

'Aurora, the goddess of dawn, sweeps across the sky between 

her brother Sol (the sun) and her sister Luna (the moon), 

announcing the new day and being first to greet her four children, 

the winds from the north, south, east and west. 

This announcement is accompanied by brilliant colour and the 

anticipation of new beginnings, but simultaneously she weeps softly for her 

fifth child; her tears falling to the earth in the form of morning dew.'

I don't mean to guide people in their interpretations, but I intended the wrapped and unwrapped clementines as the sun and moon gods, Aurora being represented by the colours of dawn rising between them. And much more symbolism of course, but isn't there always? 

My favourite part of this painting is the majestic paper halo around the top naartjie, it was tricky as all heck to paint, but I'm quite proud of that idea, and will most definitely use it again in future compositions! That and the texture of the naartjie just above the pomegranate, I really struggled to decide how loose to paint them, and this was exactly right.

Proceeds from the Auction went to www.lalela.org