‘Beneath The Crescent Moon and The Faces of Anemone’

Oil, Acrylic and Gold Leaf on Un-stretched Canvas

18 x 24 inches

August 2021

‘Beneath the Crescent Moon and The Faces of Anemone’

I started painting ‘Beneath the Crescent Moon and The Faces of Anemone’ at a time where I feel like, as humans, we were quickly humbled and reminded on a global scale as to how vulnerable and insignificant we truly are against the powers of nature and the elements that rule it. After generations of negligent, careless and irreversible choices that we inflicted on this Earth it’s becoming more blatant that she no longer is willing to let nature suffer and be sacrificed over the carelessness of the mercenaries that have always seemed to plague our existence. Spreading destruction, hate and greed for the very things making our time on this earth seem more limited.

Unfortunately these repercussions and tribulations are not the first reactions to our egocentrism. For years third world countries and smaller so called under developed but truly over exploited countries have been paying the brunt of our self-indulgent ways and it’s only now that these natural disasters have reached the west and other more affluent/ 1st world territories that we’ve really started to pay attention.

I chose this title as I hoped to capture a moment in time when the day still belongs to the more primordial creatures of the world. When the sun has just awoken to the songs of the birds and the moon has not yet set its head to rest. My favourite time of the day, in the early hours of the morning when everything seems so still and calm and most people have not yet started their day. I chose to paint a waning crescent moon symbolising the coming to an end of a cycle and the approaching of a new one. In hopes that maybe this time we might actually listen and learn from our mistakes and impulsive ways. A time to detach from the world, contemplate and prepare for the start of a new beginning. The Anemone flowers also echoe thoughts of a similar nature. Often shown to represent fragility, anticipation and new beginnings the anemone flower who’s name translates from Greek to the daughter of the wind protects herself from the mischiefs of the dark and the cold slap of the rain and wind by closing herself up from the world through the nights and turbulent weather. Because of this Anemones, in certain cultures are used as signs or early omens of what’s to come.

According to Greek Mythology, Anemones sprang out of the tears of Aphrodite while she was mourning the death of her lover Adonis. Adonis was killed by the Gods due to their jealousy over his love affair with the beautiful goddess of love and just as the anemones had stained the land beneath Aphrodite with a forever reminder of the greed and jealousy that caused them to fall from her eyes. These natural disasters will forever leave scars upon the surface of our earth, mourning the loss of what this world once was.