The Sun and The Moon: Art of the Celestial: The Friday Find

 

Elisabeth Deane's recent painting The Light Maker was included in the section on the dawn.  Her gold leaf sun burning against a blue tempera background. 

 

This piece is called 'The Light Maker' after the 18th century Tantra Deccani piece. Gold reflects light and light is the manifestation of energy.  Light makes everything visible.  This is my homage to our closest star, the sun.  Our light maker and life giver

- Elisabeth Deane

 

'Even after all this time the sun never says to

the Earth `You owe me'. Look what happens

with a love like that. It lights up the whole sky'.

- Hafiz

 

To listen to an interview with Elisabeth please follow this link.  We do plan to bring our podcast back to life in the near future…  It's only been the 5 years since we did one!  There are some rather good ones.  Maybe download a few for the car… 

Olivia Fraser's painting Elemental I was also on display in that section of the show. This painting was previously exhibited in the 2023 exhibition Beyond the Page: South Asian Miniature Painting and Britain, 1600 to Now, held at MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, and at The Box in Plymouth.   

 

Olivia's work was recently exhibited at the British Council in Delhi.  A Journey Within brought together examples of her geometric compositions that draw from Tantric philosophy and sacred geometry while engaging with the history of 20th century geometric abstraction in Europe and the United States.

 

We have worked with Olivia for many years now, and will be exhibiting recent paintings by her at Art Mumbai 2026. There are also several prints by Olivia available at the gallery. To listen to an interview with Olivia please follow this link.  

 

In this room of the exhibition, Maqbool Fida Husain's painting of the sacred city of Varanasi shows a blood red sun descending into the waters of the Ganges, the saturated colour of dusk the backdrop to the empty buildings. Husain painted the scene over the course of his career. This work comes from a private British collection and was painted in 2006. 

 

"Twenty years since Ram Kumar and myself sailed silently close to the ghats of Varanasi, my fascination for that eternal city is ever growing... Every morning, the proverbial Morn of Benares (Subah-e-Benares) would glow in gold and we pass by many ghats without a word. Only later we break our silence at a roadside Bengali coffee house…!" 

 

D. Nadkarni, Husain: Riding the Lightning, Popular Prakashan Pvt. Ltd., Bombay, 1996, p. 110 

 

Shanti Panchal's painting Brexit shows a couple gazing over the white cliffs of Dover. Shanti's watercolours are produced by a painstaking process, which he talks about in this interview conducted in 2024 

 

We held Shanti's solo-show at the gallery in 2024, an exhibition that included the monumental work Endurance, crated for Brixton Underground station. His work is currently on view at Katie Lindsay Gallery in Belfast.

 

Anwar Saeed's work featured in the Evening section of the exhibition. A characteristic collage work shows two figures, one grasping a crocodile, the phases of the moon above their heads showing the passing of time.  Saeed's work is highly allegorical, the angel for instance referencing both the divine, and state surveillance. The monochrome images taken from newspapers showing the faces of those affected by violence in Pakistan.