Leading Light (A Pillar of Fire by Night)

Leading Light (A Pillar of Fire by night), 2013

Acrylic on canvas, 90 x 90 cm

Due to the interference acrylic in this work, the Pillar changes it's colour and intensity when viewed from differing angles and in differing light.

New play/exploration

Acrylic and gesso on wood, 76.5x50cm 

Oil, acrylic and gesso on wood, 76.5x50cm 

Acrylic on paper, 68x27.5

(Interference Gold on Prussian Blue - continued exploration of "The Pillar of Fire by night")

Here a little of my new studio and surrounds at Caritas Christi Hospice in Kew. The room itself is an old ward room, in a now decommissioned wing. The view looks out over Yarra Bend to Kew Cottages. Very grateful.

Also outside my window, a ever present reminder - life size statue of Saint Bernadette Soubirous (bottom right), kneeling and asking Mary (top left hand corner) for prayer.

"A Pillar of Fire by night" study & an untitled study

I'm settling into my new studio, and am welcoming some fresh approaches to my painting practice.

Here are the beginnings of my investigation into representing the Pillar of Fire by night. I've been using Golden interference paint mixed with a thin polymer to play with luminosity. 90x90cm.

An old piece of semi-oil primed canvas has led to this. Dark acrylic paint has soaked into the edges, as well as tinting the oil prime. Gold interference paint on top. Clouds? 30x45cm.

Awaited Light

Awaited light, 2013

Acrylic on canvas, 122 x 152cm

And a few pics of the process...

A Key

A Key was part of a show entitled Aura that I shared with a dear friend, Laureen Lansdown.  It took two and half months, drafting and then painting, and ended up 1.4x9.8m in size.  Aura was open at c3 Contemporary Art Spaces at the Abbotsford Convent March 27-April 14, 2013, in Gallery 2.  Below is the statement that accompanied it:

The awe that can arise from simple encounters with light, colour and geometry, and how this can be a transcendent experience, is the focus of James Murnane’s practice.  Dwelling upon the shapes found in decorative stained glass windows, and their gracious capacity to transform dark interior spaces, James has created a painting installation that emphasises the impact of light.  Deeply impressing upon the senses, then the mind and then the heart, A Key aims to draw the person immersed in it from aesthetic experience to transcendent experience.  

A Key, 2013

Acrylic and pencil on paper, 140 x 980cm

A Pillar of Cloud by day

This small watercolour and pencil drawing was recently in SPAN, an open entry exhibition "exploring space, distance and the passage of time" at Stockroom in Kyneton, over this past December 2012/January 2013.

It currently part of the Needham Religious Art Prize at Riddoch Art Gallery in Mt Gambier, from March 16 - April 28, 2013.  It was acquired by this year's judge of the Prize, the Right Reverend Garry Weatherill, the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Ballarat.  I have not met him, yet am looking forward to at some point. 

A Pillar of Cloud by day, 2011-2012

Watercolour and pencil on paper, 39x29cm

I must trust - @ Kings ARI (Nov/Dec 2012)

A simple painting installation in the project space at Kings Artist Run Initiative (November - December 2012). 

Painted directly onto the declining roof, then door, and then floor of a space underneath a staircase. 

Gratitude extended to Anabelle Lacroix (for the invitation to show), Madé and Lyndal, and dear Lucia.

These photos are not perfectly stitched, there is overlap, yet the order here is a pan from the top of the roof down to the floor.

I must trust.

I must trust for, though swimming in beauty and truth, I feel like I am drowning for lack of them. 

I must trust that I am not in a world of chaos.  I must trust that truth can be tasted.  I must trust that beauty transcends aesthetic titillation.

May but a glimmer of Thy Light, which is greater than that of a million suns, creep through my closed eyelids.  Then shall my heart be eased, yet indeed greater shall the longing be for the fullness of Thy Light.

Until, then, my eyes open wide, I must trust.