Against All Odds
"Against All Odds" Original canvas painting
Artwork 8, from the "Dark Night" collection. Represents 3:00 AM
- 101 x 71 cm
- Acrylic & gilding wax
- 3.5 cm depth canvas
- Framed in a black floater frame
- Varnished & wired
- Signed front & back
- Comes with certificate of authenticity
This painting is another favourite of mine, and it emerged really effortlessly after a period of low inspiration. When I got this bigger canvas out, I wanted to paint something that felt like a finale. Even though this is not the final painting of this collection, I do feel like this painting sort of represents a 'breakthrough' moment in the dark night, a sort of break between the deep night, and the early hours of the morning.
This is painting was inspired by a photograph I took many years back of a single yellow rose, that managed to bloom in the middle of winter when everything else had died. The days were dark, it was cold, but against all the odds, the rose still survived, even bloomed. A single rose on a whole rose bush wouldn't be that much of an achievement in the summer - you'd probably think that that rose bush wasn't doing very well. In the context of winter however, it is an amazing thing. So in this sense, the painting holds a lot of grace. We don't need to beat ourselves up for not achieving anything, or not even being able to leave the house when it's a hard time. Nature doesn't look down or think less of the plants and flowers because they don't bloom in the winter season.
This painting holds a big promise - that if one flower managed to bloom in this state, just think how many blooms there would be come summer. The flower represents the hope and therefore is the light in this painting.