We’re constantly striving for more, doing more, but in reality achieving less. Much less. And the more we pursue the more, so grow our feelings of uncertainty, of unease at never being content and of the need to look for tomorrow and the next thing to have and the next thing to happen.
We stop being in the moment, we lose the ability to freeze frame that moment to savour it, to breathe it in, and to be calm, to be peaceful, to have peace of mind.
But on those often all too rare occasions when we do stop, we realise - if we’re honest with ourselves - that we’re all searching for ataraxis, the presence of serenity, calm, quiet, peace of mind.
Water has the ability to evoke this feeling in me. It allows me to just be, to be happy with the now and want no more. Each of the paintings in this collection, called Ataraxis, gives me that feeling, without needing to physically be by the water’s edge.
One second can pass, the light can change, the colours can alter, the contrast can shift. We move on, but the feeling can remain.