Christine Onward’s MAGICAL JOURNEYS, exhibition at Gloucester Gallery — painting

WITH NO DEGREE OF SEPARATION, self-portrait touched by magics of the sea 0

Sometimes I think myself as a continuation of the ocean.

I feel as if a part of me has decided to pour endlessly toward the calling of waves, and in response, the waves return to me in colours and ethereal energy.

And in all these, the inner someone, perhaps still me:

The happy me, the little me, the dreaming me, the one whose roads have not yet been darkened by the sadness of the world is coming out in songs of summer flowers, daring boats and dancing fish.

WITH NO DEGREE OF SEPARATION is about me. I painted the little girl, hidden inside, dressed in the golden colours of the sun. And the sea is a part of her, flowing with the tide. And with her smile, she wants to bring the joy back to the world.

Should you perhaps allow your soul to smile too?

A story of "Our Magnificent Travels", how the world turned into gold one night 0

THE INSPIRATION 

OUR MAGNIFICENT TRAVELS came to life one night with a full golden moon. Golden moons in Old Bar have this magical power of turning the ocean into a veil of dim and mysterious light. 

I took the magic of such moment and thought to give it a chance to live longer, to live endlessly. 

I thought of the sailor men who, mesmerized by the beauty of the night, asked the moon to give them the chance to see her closely.

They climbed aboard their boats, and sailed farther and farther from the shore. With every gust of wind, their hearts would beat faster... maybe this time, this moment, they will get a little bit closer to the magical moon... 

The moon watched them all through the night and thought for awhile how impossible to fulfill the sailor men's wish would be.

And hours passed. The night was almost finished. The sailors were still there, battling the waves and the gusts of wind, with the exhilarating hope of being close to the moon. 

The moon thought of the nearing dawn... her face will soon fade away in the light of the first sun... and the sailors? The sailors will return home with a story that never even begun. 

So the moon tread the path towards the ocean and the closer she got, the higher and higher the waves rose, closer and closer to caress her golden face. The sails of the boats turned to gold. The waves too, were glittering. And fish came rushing to the surface, dancing in the golden light, hoping to see a glance of the shimmering moon. 

I was in the lighthouse that night. I saw the ocean turn into gold too. 

And I put this moment in OUR MAGNIFICENT TRAVELS for you to remember that it's never too late and it is never impossible to make a dream come true, as far and unreachable as it may seem.