I recall my fascination with the stars and planets beginning with the times I’d be standing under the night sky in the back-yard with my grandfather pointing out stars and telling me their names and stories. For years I would simply connect with the stars and planets by just gazing at the sky and being with them, enjoying the sensations that would stir within me, making me feel that we were communicating; that even though my mind didn’t understand what they were saying, that my heart comprehended the language spoken by their light.
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Aries/Mars Oil on canvas 11-3/4” x 9-3/4” (30 x 24 cm) 2002 |
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Taurus/Venus Oil on canvas 11-3/4” x 9-3/4” (30 x 24 cm) 2002 |
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Gemini/Mercury Oil on canvas 11-3/4” x 9-3/4” (30 x 24 cm) 2002 |
Then one day in 1995 a friend gave me a computer print-out of general interpretations of some of the positions and aspects in my natal chart, which, though general, described in an uncanningly accurate way many characteristics of my personality and of significant events in my life. Thus began my research into Western astrology, and being a painter, as I came to know the planets and the signs of the zodiac I set out to get to know them on a more intimate level by painting their “portraits” based on my study of their qualities and characteristics. These paintings represent my getting to know the planets and the Signs that they govern right at the beginning of my introduction to “Jyotish”, the Sanscrit term for Vedic (Indian) Astrology, but before I’d understood, integrated and accepted the harmonic principle of traditional Vedic Astrology in which each planet rules both a masculine (yang) and a feminine (yin) Sign, and with the Moon ruling feminine Cancer and the Sun ruling masculine Leo.
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Cancer/Moon Oil on canvas 11-3/4” x 9-3/4” (30 x 24 cm) 2002 |
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Leo/Sun Oil on canvas 11-3/4” x 9-3/4” (30 x 24 cm) 2002 |
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Virgo/Mercury Oil on canvas 11-3/4” x 9-3/4” (30 x 24 cm) 2002 SOLD |
Although I’ve dedicated myself to the science and philosophy of Vedic Astrology since 2002, these paintings were created between 2001-2002 during my transition phase to Vedic Astrology and thus they depict the Sign Rulerships through the Western, Tropical Astrological viewpoint, in which the harmonic masculine-feminine rulerships of certain Signs were changed to reflect the discoveries of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto in our Solar System.
Thus, for Scorpio I depicted both the traditional Mars and the newly discovered Pluto as its rulers; while for Aquarius I depicted Uranus, and for Pisces I depicted Neptune as rulers, without depicting their traditional rulers, respectively, of Saturn and Jupiter.
In my experience as a painter, art is meditation, and my goal with painting is to create images that function as “dharanas” – images that evoke meditative states. Though I may begin a painting with a preliminary plan on how I want to proceed, I have learned that if I consciously and rationally control the process, the result is stifled, stilted and stiff. It is only when I let go and return to that childhood state in which I gaze at the canvas and the colors, and allow myself to listen to the silent language of intuition and meditation that the essence of a symbol can come through in a painting.
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Libra/Venus Oil on canvas 11-3/4” x 9-3/4” (30 x 24 cm) 2002 |
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Scorpio/Mars/Pluto Oil on canvas 11-3/4” x 9-3/4” (30 x 24 cm) 2002 SOLD |
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Sagittarius/Jupiter Oil on canvas 11-3/4” x 9-3/4” (30 x 24 cm) 2002 |
In my experience as a painter, art is meditation, and my goal with painting is to create images that function as “dharanas” – images that evoke meditative states. Though I may begin a painting with a preliminary plan on how I want to proceed, I have learned that if I consciously and rationally control the process, the result is stifled, stilted and stiff. It is only when I let go and return to that childhood state in which I gaze at the canvas and the colors, and allow myself to listen to the silent language of intuition and meditation that the essence of a symbol can come through in a painting.
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Capricorn/Saturn Oil on canvas 11-3/4” x 9-3/4” (30 x 24 cm) 2002 |
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Aquarius/Uranus Oil on canvas 11-3/4” x 9-3/4” (30 x 24 cm) 2002 SOLD |
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Pisces/Neptune Oil on canvas 11-3/4” x 9-3/4” (30 x 24 cm) 2002 |
Each and every
original work of art is one-of-a-kind, and can never truly be copied or reproduced
exactly as the original; thus a poster or photo can never truly do it justice
or fully transmit either its essence or the power of its beauty. Those who have
eyes that truly see, know that beauty has power. I hope that I am able to share
through my paintings the beauty that I see and feel in the Signs and Planets and
of the incredible mystery of our Solar System and of the Constellations that
surround it.
Patricia Lee Nicholls
December 2012
December 2012
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Aries-Libra Axis n.1 Oil on canvas 11-3/4” x 9-3/4” (30 x 24 cm) 2002 |
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Aries-Libra Axis n.2 Oil on canvas 11-3/4” x 9-3/4” (30 x 24 cm) 2002 |
To view all paintings in a slideshow click the X-arrow icon on the bottom right below:
Photography of artwork by Roberto Bonfigli
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