New update on the current painting; Working in egg/varnish tempera

Stephanie Tihanyi- under painting to current artwork

Here is some new photos of the current painting. Excuse the light, I took it under normal light bulb at night, but I do paint in the day under natural light only. I have working to bring out new highlights on the angels wings and armor as well as the tigers face and plants. I am leaving the face and arm till later as these have to be done with higher sensitivity.

I am going to follow my hero Austrian visionary painter, Ernst Fuchs and try to imitate his use of intense vivid color back grounds. For me it would be a great chance to learn by practice his amazing technique (I have painted the white egg tempera under paint at the top and will continue a little at the sides. Below are two works by Ernst Fuchs

Ernst Fuchs-Angel head on blue background

 

Ernst Fuchs





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 Emergence of the Inner Self Helper

The Aspects of the Self

From the Stone - Stephanie Tihanyi
(copyright held by artist)

The Spirit stepped forth from the Stone,

Emerging slowly, without sound, save for a chiming and tinkerling,

Like small glass bells or birdsong in quartz, echoing,

Small sparking notes tumbled and cascaded and pushed ahead into hard won spaces.

The queen of Sedition put Logic to flight,

in an empty lot of rubble and weeds, a derilict stone site.

Ripping aside the fabric of boundries, upon the infinite Mirror of God,

Altered forces stepped through.

Her many parts, reflections
A multiplicity of bright forms... and winged!,
Concisting of many elements,
both part and seperate.Golden skin was silver sheened,

The aspect of the face, alien yet familliar,

The crowned head sprung twelve spining galaxies,

Bright suns.




Demeter-Sketch by Stephanie Tihanyi
(copyright held by artist)

I have often wondered what this poem I wrote meant. So here I have tried to analize my own poem. I realise I am writing this is in a detached intellectual mode, but thats all I got right now as these things dont all come together when you want them.

Any infomation is better than nothing I say, who knows I may get something in the future. So here goes.

The aspect (alter, covert or hidden undeveloped part of the personality), emerged from the stone (a frozen or arrested part of the personality).

Emerging slowly, without sound (unbidden, unexpected, without any prior knowledge of, unannounced as of course a split off part of the self would do).

The Queen of Sedition (a female authority archetype that has come to overthrow and upsurp, aided by the unconcious, the false conciouseness)

The fabric of boundries. ( a break in the partitions and intra-psychic walls of dissociation). Mirror of God, (not a pathology but a natural operation).

Her many parts, reflections, a multiplicity of bright forms- and winged, Concisting of many elements, both part and seperate, (Subselves, alters, self-states)

The aspect of the face alien yet familliar, ( the yet unrecognised and co-concious parts of the self)

The Shark, the Shadow, the Fire Cat & the Knife

Shadow and the Firecat - by S. Tihanyi (copyright held by artist)

                                
In the painting, 'The Fire Cat & The Shadow', there are a number of elements at work. They each have significant meanings for the subconscious. Trying to explain them to anyone, even myself is really quite difficult because a lot of the information is kept in the subconscious and therefore locked from conscious awareness. What I am going to try to do is at least to attempt a coherent explanation. The only way I think I can start is to look at each individual element separately and then look at their relationships.



detail of Shadow and the Firecat - by S. Tihanyi
(copyright held by the artist

First I will start at the top of the page. The Shark. A purple shark looms out of the shadows across a deteriorating ceiling of an abandoned derelict old house. A house that is still occupied. I do not like sharks. Sharks frighten me, they have featured in my nightmares many times. They are everything that is perceived as menacing, devouring, dangerous. In my nightmares they have lurked in my dream oceans and also pursued me through several dreams in one night. In one set of nightmares two left the ocean and pursued me up the beach by changing into a half human half shark creatures, (the shark brothers), muscular, masculine steel grey, thick upper torsos and a huge diabolical hammerheads with rows of teeth. They walked slowly and steadily but with an relentless determination. I escaped them in that dream only to see them coming down a city street or over a field on a different night in a different dream and then I would be on the run again. Obviously a fear of masculine sexuality somewhere in there, but sometimes the same symbol can have a different meaning although the emotions of it are the same. The shark in the painting,' Fire Cat & the Shadow' is mainly about all fears and anxieties. The flames (of the Fire Cats wings) have driven it out from the shadows into the light. Fear is now seen, (and felt) it is no longer shut away or lurking in the background denied but has risen to the surface of awareness. So the question I need to ask is this,: who is the Fire Cat serving?. Is it routing and chasing out the Shark, destroying or defeating it or is it the Sharks friend, liberating the Shark (fear) from its prison of shadows?. In this mysterious house, its uncertain where whose allegiances lie.
More later.