#pulchrism

I painted Peonies Majestic in the summer before going to France for the second time to study with Thomas Darnell. It is so striking on its own without any added color that I struggled for a long time trying to decide whether to add color or not. I applied a light glaze of green over the leaves, but decided not to alter the flowers at all - as I find them to be bold and beautiful - and I believe any alteration would diminish their impact.

Morpho rhetenor congeal is a personal victory for me. It not only represents, but it embodies a successful culmination of my attempts at painting over the past five years. It is by no means perfect, but I feel satisfied with it in a way that I haven't with any of my paintings up until now. It is a breakthrough. Although I still have a great deal of learning to do, I hope that I may have reached the half-way point in my journey to being able to achieve beautiful illusion in oil paint. 

Morpho rhetenor congeal depicts a morpho butterfly, which has long been my personal emblem and totem. In 2003, I ventured to the Amazon to seek out morpho butterflies, and while on a filming expedition for my documentary Nanay, I lucked out and found a large, beautiful blue morpho fluttering about the Allpahuayo-Mishana nature reserve in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. I chased it wildly through the jungle, abandoning my fear of treading on snakes -- launching myself through the undergrowth in pursuit of that beautiful iridescence which makes the morpho so famous.

The name Morpho is an epithet of Aphrodite - the Goddess of Beauty, so it fits in well with my proprietary art movement Pulchrism.

The first time I ever saw a morpho butterfly was in 1996 at La Specola - Florence's antique and atmospheric natural history museum -- and I've been a devotee of the profound and extraordinary Beauty of morpho butterflies ever since.

I added the specification congeal to the taxonomy of the particular morpho pictured, as its construction embodies the arcane precept of coagula - the coming together order out of chaos.

Following is a video of me painting Morpho rhetenor congeal:

I experimented with a gold background and was surprised with the results - I don't know how it comes across in the photos but it came out beautiful and not at all gaudy or tacky. It really glorifies and enriches the room.

This shocking statue is referred to as "The Dying Man", and is located in Parham Gardens in West Sussex. The man is inscribing the name of his murderer in the sand. The statue was exhibited at the Great Dublin Exhibition in the late 19th century. The inscription behind the left leg reads "L. Amigoni (or perhaps L'Amigoni?), Bergamo 1857".

The statue startles you as it comes into view, but what's even more disturbing is the red algae residue which looks exactly like dried blood or red paint, which inhabits creases and crevices in the base of the marble sculpture. I wasn't sure if it had been used in some sort of dark ritual when I first saw the red colour settled in its crevices.

Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

- William Wordsworth

Pseudonarcissus is the scientific name for daffodils: Narcissus pseudonarcissus. The pseudo part plays on the myth of Narcissus who fell in love with his reflection in water, as it calls into question which is the truer usage of the name Narcissus.

The picture was painted while the pictured flowers were in bloom during March, 2014. I frequented the garden where they were flowering, and watched as new buds arose and old blooms withered.

The water is from my imagination and is my favourite part of the composition: To me it recalls late Victorian painting and illustration. I believe I succeeded in creating a crepuscular and calm atmosphere in this painting.