48” h x 30” w x 1.5”d - framed 53.5” h x 35.5” w x 1.5” d

Click image to enlarge.

ARTIST'S COMMENTARY:

After Fire, Earth, and Ether, Water is the fourth completed painting in the ‘Elements Series’ Rob has been working on for some time. Each painting features a woman emerging from the element she portrays.

Water is the element of life, fluidity and flexibility. It takes on the shape of whatever vessel holds it, be it the sea, a lake, a river, a bowl, or a jar. While all five elements are essential for life, water takes on a special role in the growth of plants and animals. In it nutrients are dissolved and transported to all parts of the organism to enable cell division and growth. Finding water on other planets is considered somewhat of a holy grail of space exploration.

In this painting a mature woman has scooped up a jar full of life-giving water and is pouring it back into the lake it came from. This represents the completion of the life cycle of water. It is taken, used for growth and transformation, then returned to the source after the life seizes to be. Here the water turns into stars and light, and the lake itself becomes ethereal. This symbolizes that on a subatomic level all matter is empty space. The lotus emerging from the depths represents the culmination of the cycles of birth, growth, blossoming, decay, and death.

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