Events Lifestyle December, 23rd 2011 by Caroline Cary

The Ways Steep

The ways steep 2

The Ways Steep.
Is taken from a line of poetry by T.S. Eliot .

This picture is painted on Perspex with specialist translucent Acrylic paints, painted on both sides which adds literal depth, very painterly on one side, smooth and transparent on the other however what is also interesting is, it presents an entirely different aspect depending on how it is lit. Front lit the colour is very intense; lit from behind with LEDS or tube lights it positively glows!

When I start a picture like this I am thinking in terms of colour and composition, I am painting an abstract but after a while the painting takes over and I find a figurative element has emerged. In this particular picture, the feeling of being in the mountains of Spain criss crossed with narrow rough paths, is what was the starting point for me, coupled with the intensity of this harsh but beautiful landscape. Whilst painting this I was also reading The Coming of the Magi by T.S. Eliot and the two linked together in my mind to form the source for The Ways Steep, the one vividly visual and the other literary.

Leonardo famously said it is impossible for the human mind to look at even the least squiggle without reading it as an image so indeed the viewer here will no doubt read whatever they like into what they see, but I like a remark from a fellow painter “Brilliant you have painted perspective without painting any, thing!”.