‘Indian art can only be studied as showing at different times a greater or less degree of consciousness, a greater or less energy; the criteria are degrees of vitality, unity, grace, and the like, never of illusion.’  ~ Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (The Transformation of Nature in Art)

Seconds to Forever.

This was a private commission for a collector in Spain.  It was an interesting project because I was asked to merge my Dreamscapes with some of the writing she had come across in my initial Cycle Diaries project.  I hadn’t worked with painting-poetry for a while and it became an intriguing thing to revisit.  The poem for this piece evolved out of a chance conversation with my late Nan who suffered from Alzheimer’s.  At the time, I was using her garage on Dartmoor as a studio and I often found myself reminding her about what I was using the space for.  One morning, we were chatting over a cup of tea and I mentioned I was working on a poem to include in the painting.  Nan recounted a quote from one of her favourite poems as a child, ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ by Wordsworth, then proceeded to recite the whole thing!  The Eastern/surrealist influence behind my Dreamscapes felt rather apt and the work’s title (which samples lines from the poem) is a reference to the opaque timelessness of the mind.

© Percival Alexander

Paintings and prints bought by various collectors.