From brokenness to Fullness

This canvas of painting is vibrant and rich and uses different colour combinations to tell a story life, through different seasons. This wall hanging drew my attention instantly, when I walked into the room. I cannot recollect the location, or the name of the painter. 

I happened to return to it today, while glancing through the photo gallery. I felt as if I was invited to meditate on the different seasons in my life!

The top part of the painting has vertical interrupted lines and horizontal large blocks of grey and black paint with spaces in between them.There is lot of grey and black in this part with hue of green in between. What is distinct about this portion of the painting is the unfilled spaces making it look fragmented and discontinuous. It is almost suggestive of struggles, pain, scars of suffering, lost time and opportunities.

In the middle portion of the painting, the theme progresses to a richer experience as the colours are brighter, and the brush strokes are more even with fewer unfilled spaces. At least on the left side of the painting, there is a semblance of a water stream that flows downward to create meadow. The golden hue of colours outshines the rest, making it pleasant and coherent  to look at. This is almost the heart of this painting. There is a change in the texture and appeal, as if the painter is sharing a season of peace and well being from his or her own personal life. It is this which becomes continuos with the third part of the painting.

The last part of the painting is a hue of rich green on which the golden yellow sunflowers are painted. Each sunflower is gently different from the other, on close inspection, suggesting how different blessings can bring wholeness to life . It is the recall of fullness of life, the painter seems to have experienced in the latter years of his or her journey. He conveys goodness, fulfilment and hope, through the choice of colours that he uses. The reddish strokes on the right bottom side of the canvas, adds even a celebrant mood. 

Life is a movement from brokenness  to fullness; the stream in the middle portion of the painting is the source of the new life of blessedness, which the painter brings it alive. It is a brilliant way of communicating that, 'it is in God we live, move and have our being'.

It is an effort to behold the journey of life as confluence of seasons and events and view them as formative to bring fullness to our lives. The painter does it most effectively.

In that sense, the painter is truthful about his losses, transformation and the new found joyful fulfilment in life.

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)