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Oliver Hazard Benson
Awakening at Gordia - Highly Detailed, Surreal and Symbolic Painting

2018

About the Item

This painting, like each of the paintings in the Purple Dawn series, is based on an earlier work that was lost or destroyed in the course of time. Feeling that I wanted to finish what I started I reconstructed the lost works from photographs and memory, adding new elements as I saw fit. For a number of reasons, I’ve assembled this series of works under the name of “Purple Dawn”. Since the 19th century a model of physics and cosmology has developed that is separate to the now established worldview. The peculiarity of this “other” cosmology is that it is reconcilable with the bizarre stories common in mythology and the miraculous events described in religious literature. One of the recent outgrowths of this the cosmology is the notion that until recently our planet was a satellite of the planet Saturn. At the time, Saturn was a star that glowed with gentle, purple colored light. Hence “Purple Dawn”. The paintings are not intended as descriptive of a cosmology or as illustrations of any mythical or religious system. They have been created with the inner sense that there was once, and there still is a perfect state of being.—Oliver Hazard Benson Oliver Hazard Benson Awakening at Gordia acrylic on panel 14h x 11w in 35.56h x 27.94w cm Oliver Hazard’s paintings are produced directly from his imagination and deals with a mixture of imagery he has witnessed in his travels, dreams, and read about in literature. The artist is influenced by Taoism and European occultism, especially the movements of the late 19th and early 20th century. Hazard is also inspired by Surrealism and the Viennese school of Fantastic Realism imagery as well as the technique and practice of old Tibetan painting and that of Renaissance Europe. His imagery comes from his imagination within and doesn't rely on specific models whether visual, literal or otherwise cultural; but also does not avoid the appearance of recognizable figures (such as a specific god or goddess) should one of them appear.

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