Peter Farrington Painting Stories
Peter Farrington is a mixed-media, intuitive Canadian painter whose artistic side emerged shortly after his arrival to the exotic and mysterious Sultanate of Oman in 2008. Peter was soon drawn into painting as he found to be the best way to explore and express the myriad of unfamiliar sensations he experienced daily.
Unconstrained by the “rules of art” but guided almost exclusively by feeling, Peter paints on a horizontally placed canvas, applying a mixture of media ranging from acrylic, glass, ceramic, oil, textile and silk paints to India Inks, water and nail polish. As patterns emerge in the often-swirling mixtures, he may apply new media, gently tilt the canvas to encourage movements in other directions or wait for the shapes to sharpen. There is never a planned image in advance, so the end results are always a wonderful surprise. When the feeling disappears, the painting is complete, only awaiting interpretation.
The two paintings on display were selected a week before this exhibition, chosen primarily because of their complementary color palettes, orientations, and because one isappearing in Issue 39 of the Artventurous Magazine. As often happens, soon after the painting choices were made, in this case the next day, Saturday, April 5, a specific message delivered jointly from these two paintings dramatically appeared on a social media platform. I have summarized it here:
“With accelerating dependency on technology, increasing disparity between those with and without, and our growing loss of connection with nature and spirit, the world as we have known it is ending, much akin to what occurred with the demise of the mythical Atlantis thousands of years before. Soon we will be entering a phase of rapid rebirth, the quality of which for us will depend on the extent to which human consciousness is alignedwith that of the New Earth.”
Painting 1: “Atlantis”
12/02/2021
60 cm W x 90 cm H
Mixed Media
Created over the course of several days while still in Covid lockdown, save for frequent visits to my friend’s incredible regenerative organic farm in Dubai, the purpose and theme of the painting escaped me. That is until October 10, 2021, when a friend in Canada asked me what it was called and about. I said I had no idea, except it might have something to do with under the sea. Ten minutes after replying by email, the copy of a2021 painting by the Polish artist Roch Urbaniak that was posted by another friend on her social media platform showed up on the top of my feed. It was called “Atlantis”. The similarity between the two images was incredible. Sadly, two days later, October 12, 2021, my Uncle Barrie passed away. He was the co-founder and former Vice-President of the Atlantis Resort in Nassau, Bahamas.
Painting 2: “Rebirth”
2/11/2022
90 cm W x 100 cm H
Mixed Media
The world was well into the period of post-covid recovery, with much effort directed towards reestablishing industrial, governance and other familiar societal and economic institutions. Despite this apparent pathological response being endlessly trumpeted loudly to all, I felt an underlying and growing sense of hope and optimism about the future, one in which humanity had a choice based on love, leading to a better relationship with each other, nature, and God. The New Earth was emerging, and we have a chance to be a part of it, to help facilitate this transition.