Judy Backhouse - "Mandala No.17: Grief"

Mandala No.17: Grief
Acrylic on Canvas, US$ 155

Mandala No.17: Grief

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Details

Acrylic on Canvas
Finished with matt acrylic varnish, framed in white float frame

W: 500mm x H: 500mm x D: 35mm
W: 20" x H: 20" x D: 1"

Approx. Weight: 0.5kg

This work is framed (but can be supplied either framed or unframed)

Price

US$ 155

Scale

Reference

M17

About "Mandala No.17: Grief"

Grief feels like having a hole punched through your chest, about where your heart used to be. It's about emptyness, lack, someone missing.

My father died on the 4th of October and I am still trying to figure out how such a small man could have taken up so much space in the world, to leave such a big hole. Everywhere, there is this gap where he used to be. Nothing.

I stopped painting for a few weeks and when I started again this image of a life-buoy on a swirling sea came to mind. Those first few weeks felt like I was just clinging on, trying to keep my head above the dark water of depression that threatened to engulf me. Friends and random kind words, were that life-buoy.

There is something about those red stripes on the buoy that echo the violence of being separated, for ever.

But as I worked on this picture I struggled to depict the devastating nothingness, the hole that he has left. Until one morning, I woke up and cut an actual hole in the canvas. The lack of paint, the lack even of canvas, is the only way that I can convey absence.

Judy Backhouse

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View all 45 works by Judy Backhouse

About Judy

I draw and paint because it gives me joy. I am currently working on a series of portraits. Last year I completed a series of mandalas, exploring an old interest in symmetry. Mandalas are symbols of wholeness and change; as such I find them a particularly good vehicle to explore emotions. A lot of my earlier work was based on dreams.

Price Range

US$ 43-546

Exhibitions

Assemblage Inktober Exhibition, 9th - 11th November 2017, Braamfontein, Johannesburg
The Mandala Series, 8th - 9th December 2016, Norwood, Johannesburg
New Expressions, 11 February - 3 March 2007, The Art Place, Roosevelt Park, Johannesburg

Education

self-taught

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