Clytemnestra Seven

This is the seventh painting in the Clytemnestra series, featuring the motif of a double headed axe, a “wall paper pattern” and painted pillars. Much of the process is Intentionally rough because it is a painting about painting [mis en abyme].It is not [for example] a painted pillar, or a painting of a pillar, or even a painting of a painting of a pillar but rather a painting about a response to a painting of a pillar. The treatment of the double headed axe has undergone several transformations, this is shiny red-gold painted in acrylic. In the background of this series the concept of catharsis related to Greek Tragedy. Engendered by curiosity with ancient Painting, this canvas focuses on the myth of Clytemnestra [revenge and catharsis] while formally concerned with the relationships of figure/ground, texture and colour. The pattern references a fragment of painted wall from Thera – pre 1550 BCE. See Warren [1975]. WARREN, Peter, “The Aegean Civilizations”. (The Making of the Past.) Oxford: Elsevier-Phaidon. 1975. Oil and acrylic paint on deep canvas.