When was leonard aitken born

I need constantly to experiment, use different mediums and explore different genres. His paintings are usually built up in many layers of stains and glazes. His floral and landscape paintings tend to concentrate on the properties of light and colour and have a calm beauty despite their brightness and vivid detail. Some of his more "whimsical" paintings have been described as resembling "animation stills"; and his animations as having the quality of "paintings come to life".

This collection of works centres around the concept of eternity. Most of these works were completed for my Masters of Arts Practice. A collection of botanical paintings. Most of these are macro scenes concentrating on the lighting and the mood and effects the lighting creates.

A figure traverses these clouds. It is a combination of a strange two-eyed crocheted ornament for the head, a ball of string for the body and a pair of shapely female legs for the legs.

However, she is also heading straight towards us. This persuades the viewer to project Midnight into their own world. In some of my works I utilise the motif of a window or door to suggest the presence of other multiple dimensions. Figure The disparate elements combine to provoke a poetic response from the viewer.

The titles are not particularly poetic. Instead they are more symbolic. The modendaity series is aimed at exploring how modern people mix the ideas of different religions with their own ideas to create a personal belief that suits them. Dogma has been annihilated.

People now feel free to create their own personal truth about the great questions of life. Some of these more realist works have a straightforward purpose. They comment on various aspects of belief and religion and how they relate to eternity.

The False Prophet Figure 13 is a portrait of any false prophet. He believes he is a king, but is he really only a pawn? His world is a distorted version of the truth, surrounded by all the religious trappings which will help draw in believers. However, what are the lights which surround him? Do they emanate from him — a symbol of his power; or do they control him? I was struck by the obsession that showed to my excited gaze the floor-boards upon which a thousand scrubbings had deepened the grooves.

I decided then to investigate the symbolism of this obsession and in order to aid my meditative and hallucinatory faculties, I made from the boards a series of drawings by placing on them, at random, sheets of paper which I undertook to rub with black lead.

In gazing attentively at the drawings thus obtained, the dark passages and those of a gently lighted penumbra, I was surprised by the sudden identification of my visionary capacities and by the hallucinatory succession of contradictory images superimposed, one upon the other, with the persistence and rapidity characteristic of amorous memories. The identity of the object dissolves and metamorphoses. A rubbing of a floor board becomes a floating city, a distorted face, an alien creature.

The accustomed mask of the object is replaced by a different vision — perhaps the true identity of the object. My frottages combine another technique which I have invented where I scratch the paper surface with a sharp object a knife, a dry pen, a pin and then rub over the lines created by the scratching.

The combination of the frottage and this other technique creates visual layers which overlap and dissect each other. However, I am working slowly towards fusing these two different styles into one. One media combination I have been using to help speed up this process involves the combining of pastel and ink on paper. Figure 17 These works still have an amorphous quality, but infuse more representational imagery into this misty uncertain world.

The softness of the pastel when visually compared with the bright hard-edged qualities of the ink create an exaggerated depth in the works which aids in the suggestion of multiple layers. They are mostly bright, airy pieces as my hopes for eternity are immensely positive. The pastel in these images sets up the base.

I have more control with this medium than the ink. The inks are splashed onto the paper, or painted randomly. Shapes and forms emerge and that is when the editing begins shaping the work into a finished state, using both more pastel and ink.

Overall, most of the images produced have a strong spiritual feel. Am I evoking feelings with these paintings? Undoubtedly they generate feelings within the viewer, but do they express feelings which relate to eternity. The next stage of this body of works will be to. This may not be begun till after this course is finished. Where does my work sit in the international art world?

From my point of view, it begins with those artists who I have admired most. I have always enjoyed the frivolity and technical mastery of Jean-Honore Fragonard — His largely improvised intrigues are confections designed for the Parisian courts.

To the right the unawareness of the servant adds to the frivolity of the event. However, with Fragonard, the dynamic movements of the figures, the delicate beauty of the landscapes — the lightness of it all — illustrate a utopian world tinged with the decadence of his time.

It is his technical mastery, and the optimism his works evoke which I enjoy most. Caspar David Friedrich — the German romantic landscape artist produced works with a simplified composition which glorified the grandness of the landscape and creation. Occasionally, in his works silhouetted, or small insignificant figures are added to exaggerate the divine nature of the landscape.

In this particular work the figure is large, but is still dwarfed by his surroundings. God lives in these landscapes. One of my works which uses landscape and aerial perspective as a device to represent eternity is figure Here the landscape is simplified down to a flat plain.

The land is so misty that it could be a different coloured continuation of the sky. The figures are just silhouettes. They melt into the. Clearly surrealism is the twentieth century movement which has intrigued me most and while I have spoken about the visual influences of Ernst above, it is Rene Magritte along with Matta who has influenced my conceptual framework for this collection of paintings most.

Seeing must suffice. But what kind of seeing must it be? Of what quality? A form of understanding is possible beyond the confines of any verbal explanation, which, if it is of any use at all, must be authenticated by a way of seeing. Unfortunately, for a large proportion of the public, seeing is not sufficient. People often see things hastily and think about them carelessly; they have been educated in disciplines and traditions in which words represent ideas and have a dominant function.

This function has left the realm of revelation beyond words neglected and unexplored. Rather, he sought to shock and surprise — to liberate our conventional vision from its obscurity.

In this painting what is inside and outside are no longer clear. Magritte also painted works where the normal perception of space and size were turned upside down. In Personal Values figure 22 the expected size relationships of a group of everyday day objects are distorted.

Added to this, the room they inhabit seems to be floating high in the sky. In both these paintings a hidden reality is either suggested or exposed for the viewers contemplation. For me, this hidden reality which lurks everywhere in our day to day lives may be where eternity lies. My paintings seek to lure the viewer into and beyond them. The picture within the picture plane is not the complete work.

Eternity cannot be depicted within the finite confines of a painting. My works attempt to both seduce the viewer into seeing multiple realities within the amorphous or realist forms shown in the painting and to awaken their imagination and so coerce them to look beyond the physical limits of the work.

Figures 5, 11, Where does my art fit into the international contemporary art scene? This creates a circular argument. The original french group of surrealists, led by Andre Breton, worshipped anarchy, social upheaval and shock. I am not an anarchist.

I use surrealism and its techniques as a springboard to producing works which are often very far from the dark, shocking imagery that some modern day surrealists believe surrealism should be.

I believe in peaceful solutions to creating change. My images of eternity are certainly influenced by my sub-conscious. I highlight this last phrase because I believe that some portion of these images come from a revelatory source. This moves me to compare myself and my work with the work of other Christian artists. Probably the only noted one is the highly commercial painter of soft, homely landscapes Thomas Kinkade. His paintings are certainly filled with a soft, almost loving light.

I see myself as a Christian who is also an artist. My art reflects my beliefs naturally, without conscious effort. While the influence of God, the visual influences of light and the belief in the pre-eminent power of love, all contribute to my work, there are many influences from the world and from my own personality which play a role in the character of my work.

Like all people I have a dark side to my nature and this sometimes manifests itself in works in the form of darker imagery or sarcasm. Modendaity figure 24 and Modendaities figure 12 are examples of this sarcasm. To place my work in an Australian context I will start with some early realists who influenced my work.

Conrad Martens — was a watercolourist who painted picturesque images of Sydney Harbour and other parts of Australia. These works were often dramatic, using high contrast and areas of mist to accentuate the drama of a sunrise or sunset. Other realists who have inspired my work include William Charles Pigeunit — and Eugene von Guerard — An example, On the Nepean, N. The boat is dwarfed by the cliffs on either side and the figures in the boat are almost invisible.

Once again, the figure in the foreground is made to look insignificant against the backdrop of so much natural grandeur. My current series of works is also influenced by one particular Australian surrealist. All that we can do is to bring together pre-existing realities in such new relationships as might surprise us into feeling that we have caught a momentary glimpse of something that had previously been hidden from us. Nothing is as strange or as various as Nature herself.

She is the primal Surrealist. It can only come through revelation from God. Figure 29 My work in comparison is much more colourful and light — my viewpoint is more positive.

They were seeking positive outcomes. It is the fantastic used as a method of elucidation. It aims at a re-orientation of values through a broadening of the concept of reality. My work seeks to convey as positive a feeling or message as I can muster from such an untamable source as my own sub-conscious.

Figure 30, the Fabulous Doctrine is velvety, light and intangible. There is a pillar of solidity holding the piece together, but its gentle lushness speaks of a loving extravagance. Botanicals, landscapes and seascapes have been the subject of many paintings. Clouds, rock and water particularly fascinate me. I have always loved reflections, refractions and transparencies. These features in the natural world, suggest another world beyond our own.

They separate one image from another or a part of an image from its surroundings. In the case of reflections, they mirror, but distort that part of the natural world they exhibit. Refractions and transparencies reveal a part of the world that appears separate from our standpoint. Some of my works use these devices to suggest extra dimensions, ambiguous depths and alternative space.

Figures 7, 9, On a practical level, I am a modern artist with modern sensibilities. I wish to make a living out of my art. Imposter Painting Oilpainting 90 x 60 cm Price: Euro more information. Carnival in the Jungle. Painting Oilpainting x cm Price: 1. Two Worlds Painting 75 x 55 cm Price: Euro more information. Near Twilight Painting 40 x 40 cm Price: Euro more information. Majesty Painting Oilpainting 60 x 60 cm Price: 2.