Secrets In the Waves, oil painting, Siobhan Bedford
A Look Back.
It’s always a bit surreal to go looking back at older work. I flip-flop on whether it’s a good idea or not. I’m flipping on the good side today…so sharing this piece from the past.
Its title is “Secrets in the Waves” from a series I created years ago called “Aquatic.”
In 2017, I went to California to dip my feet in the Pacific. I feel like something seeped into my soul through my soles:) I took this photo high above a cove. The fog was heavy. The ocean was thunder and mystery. I always thought it would be good inspiration for a painting. Ah…someday!
Waves.
I remember working on the paintings and getting a sense of something being stirred up from the sands at the bottom of the ocean.
Maybe more like a subconscious inner sea. A place where we float or sometimes swim. Occasionally drown. I imagine memories, dreams, and ancient instincts all tumbling about under crashing waves. Waves are such great metaphors for the highs and lows of our days!
Waves of joy and waves of grief. Tides going in. Tides going out. On and on.
I did use some metallic gold paint in the details. Hard to tell in the photo…so you’ll just have to trust me;) I feel like it gives that extra layer that increases depth. Also, I simply love the shine of metallics. So much so that I have some metallic art supplies coming my way. Hope to be adding it to some of the new work happening in the studio.
“Time takes life away
and gives us memory, gold with flame,
black with embers.”
I took this photo last year in my little backyard garden on a hot August morning. Clearly not an ocean…but it has that underwater light like scattered gold feeling.