On The Easel - February 2012

Scene 3 Erwartung Series

The Erwartung Series started in October is nearing completion with just the last and final Scene to complete.  The painting featured here (actually just 'off the easel') is Scene 3, in which the woman encounters what she believes to be a figure dancing in the moonlight.

The text for Erwartung was written by Marie Pappenheim, a young medical student, in response to a commision from Schoenberg.  A clearly disturbing work which has been linked to the psychoanalytical case studies of Freud - those of  'Anna O' and 'Dora' - both studies on female hysteria, and Josef Breuer´s 'Studien uber Hysterie' of 1895.

It is fascinating that the text of Erwartung and 'Dora' both include dreams (hallucinations) about the forest - a place of anxiety and mystery.  The woman in Erwartung upon entering the forest sings "An oppressive air attacks me...Like a storm that waits." Within Scene three and in particular Scene 4 the text clearly mentions bright yellow mushrooms 'rising out of the grass like eyes on stalks' which in Freudian symbology are distinctly phallic, although mine are more like bright eyeballs!

What drew me to the work was the haunting music of Schoenberg, the forest at night, the mystery of the lover, the amnesia and hallucinations, and a path on the road to more expressive and creative art.

Four Sea Interludes Series - Acrylic Paintings

During the last two years of study at Moulsham School, Chelmsford, I studied music and our specialist subject was English Composers.  The Four Sea Interludes by Benjamin Britten from his opera Peter Grimes was one of the set pieces which I loved.  In my latest series I wanted to evoke the menace and sombre moods reflected in Britten´s brilliant orchestral music.  I also used extracts from the original poem used for the libretto and plot:  The Borough.  Letter XXII: Peter Grimes by George Crabbe (1754-1832).  This series about a fisherman outcast by his villagers, also reflects Britten´s own predicament as a homosexual and pacifist in an intolerant (1939) society.  The series has been painted in a "marine" format on linen canvas, using used fisherman´s nets from a local fishing port (Burriana), Malden sea salt, and in Moonlight some paint was applied using a sea sponge.  To see the series in full please visit my web page.