Liminal Liberty - Summer

Liminal Liberty — Summer
Cold wax and oil on canvas

Summer is the warmest panel in the series and the most saturated. The whole canvas glows in gold and ochre. A face in profile rises out of it, with a brow, nose, lips and chin carved into the wax, and smaller figures nest inside its contours, holding one another within the same collective countenance. Cold wax is built up and scraped back, so the surface becomes stratigraphy, evidence of having been here: a cave painting in reverse. The four seasons run backwards, from Autumn to Winter, because even they are held in imposed liminality. Summer comes second, so its heat is already behind us. It is warmth remembered rather than lived. Here liberty is not release. It is the uncomfortable act of staying visible in the in-between, even at the height of the light.