Breath of Birch

Breath of Birch turns the viewer up a narrow path into a stand of birch, where the canopy has closed overhead and the afternoon arrives already softened. It is a painting made almost entirely of light in transit — through a canopy of hundreds of small touches, green worked against green with gold carried through them, down trunks drawn in long vertical drags of white that hold them upright against the dark behind, and out at last across the path as a scattering of cream, ochre, and lilac. The birches repeat themselves into the distance and draw the way deeper in.

The painting is composed to be travelled rather than surveyed, which is the source of its particular calm. NeuroArts is attentive to repetition — to the way an experience returned to often enough begins to shape us — and a path like this one is made for returning. Shelter stands on either side, the way through runs between them, and attention that has spent the day on decisions is offered a place holding none. The glimmer of the dappling keeps the eye lightly occupied while everything behind it is permitted to go quiet, and each time the eye walks that path, the quiet at the far end is easier to find.

Beauty is the means here rather than the message. The path continues, the light keeps shifting across it, and the demands of the day are left somewhere behind the first row of trunks.

Details

• Oil painting on canvas

• Unframed

• Ready to hang

• Dimensions in inches: 16 wide x 40 high

• Ships with tracking number via courier.