Mid Winter, solstice, long dark nights, solitude, a time for reflection of the year gone by. Trees bare of leaves, their skeletons showing, shaped by the wind and time. Branches crashing to the ground in the arctic winds. Some trees will fall by the wayside.
To me the interest in a crucifixion image is not the religious portrayal of horrific torture and a reminder of how foul people can be to each other and the planet, but more the portrayal of the horizontal and the vertical and how the body is shaped by these forces.
This aligns with Alexander Technique thinking which teaches us to open our thinking in these directions. By developing our awareness of spatial planes our muscle spirals are allowed to unravel into length width with ease and our consciousness to be free. Things feel lighter.
The three days of the solstice are time to pay homage to the essential support deep within and ease out of the year by taking time to rest.
Death of a Horse Tree, Oil on Canvas, 100 x 150 cm
Painting inspired by Salvador Dali’s luminescent crucifixion painting in the Kelvingrove, Glasgow.)