The Beginning Of A New Painting

Detail of the under painting of my new work- Stephanie Tihanyi

I have begun a new painting. So far, I have only just worked upon the under-painting, following the techniques of the old masters, instructed to me by my professor Philip Rubinov Jacobson, who was directly taught by Ernst Fuchs, the founder of the Viennese school of Fantastic Realism. I started upon a ground of English red earth and egg tempera mixture, and the began to work on the under painting in titanium white and egg tempera. This image to me is very powerful and instinctual. It requires a lot of energy and fortitude to  draw forth this painting, a bit like cycling up a long steep hill emotionally.
Sometimes you look into the light, sometimes you choose to look into the dark...
 today I work on under-painting a detail of my new work, it features the
beast of the apocalypse , its about the beast of ones own apocalypse.  Confronting our darkness of our past, needs a certain level of understanding (light) to be able to make sense of what we uncover, plus courage. I am fascinated with the darker side, it is a mystery, most times a tyrant,  so a worthy opponent to confront. I understand its not a path for everyone. In myths it is the hero, that boldly walks into the depths of Hades to extract the treasure or wisdom or take back something stolen. To the ancient Greeks, the daemonic appears not only through elements “inside” the self—the passions, the blood, but also “outside” the self—in wind, rain, fire, animals. Plato understood, its the dynamic unrest that exists in us all that forces us into the unknown, leading to self-destruction and/or self-discovery. In Japanese Shinto, Buddhist tradition its known as theTengu.

The best book on Visionary Art 'Drinking Lightening- Art, Creativity & Transformation

me with Phil's book 'Drinking Lightening- Art, Creativity & Transformation'

I received it at last, by ocean freight, Philip Rubinov Jacobson 's book Drinking Lightning: Art, Creativity and Transformation Where he accounts his own journey into and discovery of the art and artists, of 'the invisible tribe' of Visionary Artists. A linage that tracks far back through the ages and across the globe. An historically important, a now steadily re- connecting tribe, who's existence still remains largely ignored and
denied by the art establishment today.

My painting: Cup of Abundance is finished

 Its my first one that is in the new technique of oil/egg tempera of the Old Masters. A technique I learnt from Prof. Philip Rubinov Jacobson at the workshop in Vienna this year. Its on canvas and the size is 24X30 inches:






Cup of Abundance -by Stephanie Tihanyi
 

This is my painting, The Cup of Abundance is finished  In the  painting, the Peacock Colored Angel hold the Holy Grail to all who can sees spiritual light, traversing from afar into the realm of the Kingdom of Nature, where the laws of life and death are set in place, Souls, like moths flock around, drawn by the light and heat, desiring to be consumed by the flame of eternal love and carried to realm of softer, higher vibrations.

After reading The Conference of the Birds or Speech of the Birds, Written in 1177, in Persian by the poet Farid ud-Din Attar, who is commonly known as Attar of Nishapur.  It is a poem about the king of the birds (souls) leading them to enlightenment. I became interested with the symbol and tradition of the Pheonix.
 In Persian its known as Simurgh (/ˌsɪˈmərɡ/; Persian: سیمرغ sɪmorγ), also spelled simorgh, simurg, simoorg or simourv, is a benevolent, mythical flying creature. It is sometimes equated with other mythological birds such as Arabic Anqā (عنقا) or Persian Homā (Persian: هما‎). The figure can be found in all periods of Greater Iranian art and literature and is also evident in the iconography of medieval Armenia .  The mythical bird is also found in the mythology of the Turkic peoples of Central Asia and is called Kerkés, Semrug, Semurg, Samran, and Samruk.^[3][4] The word was also borrowed into Armenian as siramarg ‘peacock’.