I started planning my exhibition, Gathering Light, when I realized that it would take place during the darkest months of the year. I began to do some research to see if there were any myths or fables about gathering light in the summer and saving that light to give away in the darkest months.
Last fall I had the opportunity to go on a pilgrimage retreat on the island of Iona in Scotland. It was on this island that St. Columba landed in 563 bringing Celtic Christianity into Scotland. The island they say is blessed. On one hillock, legend has it that when Columba prayed each evening, angels were seen to come down to bless him. It’s called the Hill of the Angels. The Book of Kells was begun here but moved to Ireland when the island was invaded by Vikings. This luminous book is now on display at Trinity College in Dublin.
On the hill called Dun I, above the Abbey on Iona.
From Iona I went on to the Isle of Lewis to see the Callanish Standing Stones, a circle of stones, that are oriented to a lunar cycle called the Lunar Standstill. It is hard to imagine that this stone circle was built 5000 years ago, over several hundred years, and that the builders oriented it to a lunar event that happened only once every 18 years.
The Callanish Standing Stones, Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland.
The ancients knew about light. Light was sacred to them. Their stone circles and passage graves were oriented to the light—at solstices and equinoxes and Lunar Standstills. I decided to metaphorically gather some of that light—from Iona and from the Callanish Standing Stones—and bring it home to translate into paintings.
I’ve always had a fascination for light. It’s what brought me to painting in the first place, when I started to paint in watercolour over thirty years ago. My work gradually moved from watercolour into oils. I continue to work in oil and I mix the oil with cold wax medium which gives some body and transparency.
I begin a painting not knowing where it will go, letting my intuition lead me. I apply oil paint in extremely thin, translucent layers that overlap each other like delicate panes of glass. I approach painting in a way that reflects my practice of meditation, where the mind becomes quiet. The surface is gradually built up layer by layer creating luminous colour fields that appear to vibrate. They are experiential surfaces that shift in different environments as lighting conditions and the viewer’s perspectives change.
Gathering Light 14 (1444) 60×60” Oil on canvas
Aquorthies Stone Circle, Aberdeenshire Scotland
Gathering Light 30 (1460) 60×144” Oil on Canvas
The Abbey on Iona.
I have been, in a sense, gathering light for years from sacred sites I have visited, passage graves I have sat inside and stone circles I have walked. As I prepared for this exhibition at Gallery Stratford, I couldn’t find any myths about gathering light to give away in the dark winter months. So I created this series of paintings as a visual myth.
Lough Crew Passage Grave, Ireland
The paintings are about the light I have collected from places of light. And they are about giving that light away in the darkest months.
~ Janice Mason Steeves
Website: www.janicemasonsteeves.com
Exhibition at Gallery Stratford: to April 05, 2015
Gallery Strat Chat 