Der Blaue Reiter

The latest painting in my Veil Series was inspired by the Beltane, noted in yesterday's post. It is believed that during this cycle of the year, it is one of the times when the veil between our physical plane and the metaphysical realm is the thinnest. This informs my abstract work and inspires my spiritual practice. This is probably also where the quote, The Goddess is alive and Magic is afoot, comes from. And being just a few days from the Wesak moon, the most powerful full moon of the year, just adds to the energy of this year's event. The title, Der Blaue Reiter, (The Blue Rider in English), was gleaned from the name of the pioneering German Expressionist modern art movement of the early 20th century. It confronted feelings of alienation within an increasingly modernizing world. Sound familiar? They sought to transcend the mundane or profane as it were, by pursuing the spiritual in art. Wassily Kandinsky, the father of non-objective art and Franz Marc were the center of the group, and the name "Der Blaue Reiter" referred to their belief that blue was the most spiritual color and that the rider symbolized the ability to move beyond... I work on my canvases sometimes from may angles, and when I finished this one and was sitting with it, I noticed the unintentional images of the blue horses, maybe even a unicorn, frolicking across the picture plane! Magic afoot indeed! It is an homage to Franz Marc's beautiful paintings of the blue horses and the long history of expressing the spiritual through art. Ride on!