Epimystic

The Hand

The atelier

The figures this codex draws in light — the Seed of Life, the seal, the spiral — were drawn first by hand, in paint. Here is the work of the one hand that keeps it: 88 pieces, in acrylic and pigment, the same geometry made physical.

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Sacred Geometry

The drawn glyphs, in pigment

The figures this codex draws in light — the Seed of Life, the mandala, the wheel — set down first by hand, in paint.

A black Seed-of-Life geometry of seven overlapping circles over a red and gold cosmic spatter on dark blue.
Seed of Life Seven circles — the figure the codex keeps drawing — on a burning ground.
Hand-drawn alchemical line-work — an eye within nested triangles, a crescent and sun, arrows and dotted circles — in black and red on a pale gold panel.
The Alchemist’s Key Eye, triangle, and the descending star, in gold and oxblood.
An Aztec sun-stone mandala in oxblood, blue, and gold on cream, a central face ringed by glyph bands.
The Sun Stone A calendar wheel after the Mexica, read sunwise.
A radial floral mandala in orange, pink, teal, and gold on a deep indigo ground.
Lotus Mandala An eight-fold bloom opening on indigo.
A gold and oxblood sun-wheel mandala with a radiant black-and-red centre, ringed by a spoked border.
The Solar Wheel Spokes of a turning sun.
A radial mandala with the Aum (Om) symbol at its centre, ringed by lotus petals in pink, blue, gold, and teal on a black ground.
Aum The first sound, at the still centre of the lotus.

Devotional

Inherited hands

Older grammars — folk, ornament, and the painted god — kept alive by copying them well.

A portrait of the god Shiva with blue skin and dark matted hair, eyes lowered in meditation, three horizontal stripes of white ash and a red mark on the forehead, and a white crescent moon at his temple, against a deep blue ground.
Adiyogi Shiva as the first of yogis — ash on the brow, the crescent at the temple, the eyes half-closed on the inward thing.
A folk tree-of-life motif in white and gold leaves on a red ground with a patterned border.
Tree of Life Kalpavriksha, in vermilion and gold.
A painting of the Norse world-tree Yggdrasil inside a circular band of runes and triquetra knots, on a ground of deep blue and burnt orange.
Yggdrasil The world-tree, ringed by runes.
A gold Celtic knotwork roundel of three interlaced cranes around a central triple spiral, on a deep blue ground.
Triskele Three cranes bound in a knot, gilt on blue.
A baroque damask motif in purple, coral, and gold on an emerald ground.
Damask A sovereign pattern, mirrored and gilt.

Celestial

Nebulae and dying stars

Poured pigment that behaves like deep space — cloud, void, and the light of stars coming apart.

A white-hot burst of poured paint radiating into blue, violet, and black like an exploding star.
Supernova A star coming undone, all in one breath.
Swirling violet, blue, and silver fluid paint with deep black voids, like a nebula.
Nebula, in Violet Cloud and void, silver folding into the dark.
A dramatic marbled pour of black, violet, and silver-white swirling like a bloom unfolding in deep space.
Nightbloom Silver and violet, opening in the dark.
A soft marbled acrylic pour of lilac, violet, blue, and gold swirling like an interstellar cloud.
Orchid Nebula A violet cloud, threaded with gold.
Blue, lilac, and silver paint marbled over black, resembling a deep-field astronomical image.
The Deep Field Marbled dark, the way deep space photographs.
Blue, white, and purple cells of poured paint with black voids and gold corners.
Twin Eclipses Two darknesses, kept apart by light.
A glossy acrylic pour: pale lilac veined with gold meeting a deep charcoal-black void.
The Lilac Deep Lilac light at the edge of a darkness.
Gold, copper, and pink veins marbled across deep black with a small turquoise glow at the centre, like the fire caught in a black opal.
Black Opal Gold, and a single blue fire, adrift in black.
Swirling veins of metallic gold and bronze marbled across a deep black ground, like gold dust adrift in the void.
Goldsmoke Veins of gold, drifting in the dark.
Green and gold cellular blooms scattered across a cobalt-blue poured ground.
Spawn on Cobalt Cells dividing in a cobalt sea.
A glowing blue orb and a teal orb on a deep red field beside a cluster of yellow dots.
A Blue World, by a Red Sun A small planet beside a cluster of suns.
A Rothko-like colour field of layered deep blues with a soft gold edge at the left and a luminous paler band toward the right.
The Blue Hour Colour laid in fields — the blue deepening toward night.

The Sea Before Words

One painting, whole and close

The hand’s largest work — three feet by two — after the Rig Veda’s hymn of creation: the deep that was before existence, where darkness lay hidden in darkness and the waters were, before the first word. Seen here whole, then walked close.

A large abstract fluid-pour painting: rivers of violet, electric blue, and chartreuse green threading through a dark ground, with a band of gold near the top.
Sea Before Words The deep before creation — water, and the dark moving upon it.
Detail of the painting: a horizontal band of gold and lavender dripping across a dark field, above a marbled blue-and-green sea.
The Gilded Shore Gold breaks across the water — the first edge of a world.
Detail of the painting: a vertical cataract of chartreuse green and blue pouring through violet, breaking into cells at its base.
The Cataract Green pouring down, the way the first waters fell.
Detail of the painting: marbled currents of lilac, cobalt blue, and green meeting a deep wine-red field.
The Churning Mid-sea — lilac and cobalt, turning.
Detail of the painting: dense cellular marbling of blue, violet, and green over a near-black ground.
The Deep The unlit floor, where the dark is hidden by the dark.

Elemental

Fire, flux, and plumage

The unrestrained register — heat, motion, and colour let off the leash.

A solid black disc surrounded by gestural pink, blue, and green strokes on a bright yellow ground.
The Black Sun An eclipse held in a field of light.
An impasto palette-knife painting: a burst of yellow, gold, orange, and red paint shaped like a flame or a bird in flight, on a dark blue-black ground.
Firebird A burst of flame-coloured paint, leaping on a dark ground.
A vertical fluid pour of copper, gold, cream, and orange rising like a tongue of flame against a near-black ground.
Pyre A single flame of copper and gold, rising on the dark.
A turbulent pour of red, coral, white, and gold beside a block of ochre, churning like magma meeting ice.
Magma Fire and frost, marbled at the vent.
Streaming yellow, gold, and green fluid paint like solar flares.
Solar Wind Heat streaming off a yellow star.
Green organic forms drifting across a glowing orange and ochre field, with paint dripping from the top edge.
Slow Fire Dark green seeds, held in a slow amber burn.
Honey-yellow, orange, and cream marbling like flowing amber.
Amber Resin caught mid-flow.
Feather-like streaks of pink, blue, orange, and white fanning across a black ground.
Plumage A bird of paradise, dissolved into pour.
A swirling tangle of pink, blue, orange, and violet poured paint.
Carnival All the colours, turning at once.
A blue-and-red spiral within a circle on an ochre ground, surrounded by spattered drips.
The Vortex A spiral wound inside a ring.
Vertical drips of green, blue, orange, and white like rain-streaked colour.
Monsoon Green and blue running in the rain.
A vertical fluid pour of turquoise, copper-gold, and black rising in flame-like tongues.
Foxfire Cold green fire, veined with copper.
A turquoise and teal acrylic pour churning with white and pale blue crests and spray, with a vein of gold at the right, like surf caught mid-break.
Turquoise Surf Water in motion — white breaking across the turquoise.

Terrestrial

Ore, verdigris, and strata

The same pour, read as stone — the banded insides of rock, and the slow colours metal takes when it is left alone.

An intense marbled pour of violet, magenta, blue, and pink resembling the polished cross-section of an agate geode.
Geode The inside of a stone, all violet and rose.
Emerald green and metallic gold marbled into stone-like veins.
Malachite Veins of green run through gold.
A dense marbled pour of olive, gold, black, and ember-orange, like the chatoyant bands of tiger's eye.
Tiger’s Eye Bands of gold and ember in a dark stone.
A vertical pour of amethyst violet, lilac, gold, and black streaming downward like a mineral vein in stone.
Amethyst Vein A seam of violet running down the rock.
A fluid pour of crimson, coral, and ice-white in horizontal bands with a gold edge, resembling banded carnelian agate.
Carnelian Red and milk-white, banded like cut stone.
A soft marbled pour of rose-red, cream-white, and gold, like the swirl inside a piece of rose quartz.
Rose Quartz Rose and cream, veined with gold.
A dense marbled pour of dark green and black scattered with coral-red, cream, and gold, like the mineral bloodstone.
Bloodstone Red scattered through a dark green ground.
A marbled acrylic pour of violet, blue, pink, and white swirling on a pale ground, resembling polished charoite.
Charoite Violet swirled through white, like the polished stone.
A dense green acrylic pour crossed diagonally by an iridescent seam of pink, lilac, and white, with a pale opening at the top and gold flecks near the base.
Opal Seam A seam of iridescence cutting down through the green.
Green, gold, and copper poured paint marbled into vertical, vein-like flows.
Jade Vein Green running through the gold of the rock.
A glossy marbled pour of turquoise, metallic gold, orange, and black, like oxidised bronze.
Tarnish Bronze gone to turquoise and gold.
Green, gold, and copper poured paint with a weathered, mineral texture.
Patina Copper gone to green with age.
Swirls of copper, gold, and green resembling oxidised metal and ore.
Verdigris and Ore Metal and moss, poured together.
Green, gold, and orange poured paint rising in a molten central plume on a pale gold ground.
Smelt Ore running molten, green into gold.
A marbled pour of slate grey and lavender scattered with droplets of pink and gold, like weathered stone.
Slate and Rose Storm-grey stone, touched with rose.
Cream, white, and soft gold marbling like polished alabaster.
Alabaster Pale stone, slowly poured.

From Above

Land and water, at altitude

The same pour, read from a height — coast and canopy, delta and shoal, as though the canvas were a window in the floor of a plane.

Green and metallic-gold fluid paint resembling an aerial view of fields, rivers, and ridges.
Cartography Land read from a great height.
Cobalt water meeting orange and green land, like a river delta photographed from orbit.
Delta, from Orbit A coastline seen from very far up.
A turbulent multicolour pour with a gold-and-blue map-like region beside swirls of violet, white, and pink, like a river estuary seen from orbit.
Estuary Gold land meeting violet water, from above.
Cobalt blue threading through green, orange, and gold poured paint, like water meeting land seen from above.
Tidewater Blue water threading green and gold land.
A teal and gold acrylic pour banded like shallow water over sand: pale gold ridges winding around pools of deep green, with speckled darker patches, as if seen from the air.
The Shoal Gold shallows ringing a deep green pool.
A heavily textured impasto painting: a mass of ochre and sand-coloured paint studded with blue-grey nodules on a deep cobalt-blue ground, like a reef or atoll seen from above.
Atoll An island built grain by grain, ringed by deep water.
A dense all-over marbled pour of dark green, gold, and cream, like a forest canopy seen from directly above.
Canopy A forest read from above, all green and gold.
A dense emerald and forest-green pour threaded all over with curling filaments of white, mint, and pale pink, like light breaking through tangled undergrowth.
The Thicket Green closing over itself, white breaking through the gaps.
A deep jade-green pour with darker currents and thin violet and white streaks drifting horizontally across the canvas, like a slow green river seen from above.
Jade Current Slow water the colour of jade, drifting sideways.
A deep emerald acrylic pour in which pale turquoise, white, and blush strata curve in nested contour lines around a darker basin, like a topographic map of green stone.
Verdigris Contour Pale strata curving through deep green, the way a map draws a hillside.

In Relief

The raised surface

Where the pour is left behind and the pigment is built up by hand — the sea worked into a third dimension, ridge and trough you could run a thumb along; and one such surface, carried close through three different lights.

A three-dimensional relief painting of a turbulent sea: thick sculpted ridges of cobalt and ultramarine blue with white foam crests and dark troughs, the pigment built up off the surface.
The Breaking Sea A storm-swell raised by hand — ultramarine ridges and white foam, in relief.
A close raking-light detail of the same relief sea-painting, showing sculpted ridges of blue paint and white foam standing in three dimensions.
Crest and Trough Close on the surface, where the paint itself becomes wave and hollow.
Extreme close-up of a sculptural relief painting of a swirling, vortex-like surface, lit warmly so the raised ridges read in bronze, gold, and violet against deep shadow.
The Gyre, in Gold One sculpted swirl, raked by a warm light — bronze and violet.
The same swirling sculptural relief lit in teal and jade green, with copper highlights catching along the raised crests of paint.
The Gyre, in Jade Turned to the green — copper caught in the troughs.
The same swirling sculptural relief lit in deep ultramarine and cobalt blue, the sculpted ridges almost submerged in colour but for a few gold flecks.
The Gyre, in Blue And under blue — the deep, where the gold all but drowns.

Cloisonné

Colour, walled in black

A turn from the pour to the drawn line — one unbroken black contour carves the whole field into cells and floods each with flat, unmixed colour. The stained-glass grammar let loose and biomorphic: geometry gone fluid.

A vivid biomorphic abstract painting in which bold black outlines divide the canvas into interlocking organic cells of flat, saturated colour — yellow, cobalt, red, crimson, green, pink, and teal — with several circular, orbit-like motifs, like a fluid stained-glass window.
Leaded Light A whole world cut into cells by a single black line, every pool flooded with its own colour.

Hard-Edge

Flat colour, clean edge

A turn away from the pour — flat fields and hard edges, primary colour set down plainly, geometry without the drip.

A hard-edge geometric painting in four panels on a cream ground: a green field crossed by diagonal lines, a cluster of red circles with a comma form, a blue grid in the manner of Mondrian, and a blue field interrupted by cream circles.
Four Quarters Four flat panels — field, grid, and circle, in primary colour.
A hard-edge geometric painting in four panels on cream: a blue grid holding a turquoise-and-copper fluid-pour inset, a green field cut by a diagonal, a blue panel with cream circles, and a cluster of red circles with a comma form.
Four Quarters II The four-panel study, taken further — a poured window let into the geometry.

The Living Shape

Face and wing, in flat colour

The flat unmixed colour of the hard-edge work, turned on something alive — a face taken apart into planes, a bird crossing a painted morning. No shading, no modelling, nothing softened: the living thing set down in bright and uncompromising shapes.

A cubist-style portrait of a face assembled from flat planes of orange, pink, blue, green, grey and tan, with two asymmetric dark eyes, heavy black brows, bright red lips and long blue hair, on a pale blue ground.
Portrait in Planes A face taken apart into flat colour and put back together — no two planes agreeing on where the light is.
A flat-colour painting of a crimson and pink bird in flight with its wings spread, against a bright blue sky with white clouds, sprays of yellow and blue blossom above, and two small dark birds in the distance.
Fair Weather A bird crossing a painted morning, under blossom and cloud.

The Seen World

Places, looked at

Where the hand turns from pattern to place — the visible world, set down as it falls on the eye, or found waiting inside a pour.

An impressionist palette-knife painting of a sunlit Mediterranean hill-town street — blue doors, ochre houses, red bougainvillaea, and a cobbled lane.
A Southern Town Blue doors and bougainvillaea, in the noon light.
An abstract pour that reads as a mountain range: black, gold, and purple craggy peaks beneath a rose-and-cream dawn sky.
The Range at Dawn Dark peaks under a sky going rose.
A circular tondo acrylic-pour painting: a streaked violet and lavender sky veined with gold above a molten golden-green and orange valley, framed as a disc on black.
Valley Under Violet Golden ground beneath a violet sky, poured in the round.

In Situ

The work in its place

The pieces as they actually live — fresh and wet on the studio bench, framed and hung on the wall, or caught mid-method — not cropped to the canvas but in the room that made them.

A photograph of two canvases on a paint-splattered wooden studio bench: above, a finished cloisonne painting of black-outlined cells filled with bright flat colour; below, a black canvas bearing only looping white lines and circles, the drawn stage before the colour is added.
Line Before Colour The same method, twice: the finished cells above, and below the bare white line that comes first — the drawing before anything is flooded in.
A photograph of a pale wall with three wooden picture-ledges holding many framed paintings: a blue meditating Shiva, a sunlit Mediterranean street scene, an Om mandala, sacred-geometry panels, sun-mandalas, and several small abstract and ornamental works.
The Salon Wall The pieces gathered on their ledges — the blue god, the mandalas, the southern town, the sacred glyphs — hung together in one room.
A photograph of a wall hung with two framed abstract paintings — one of a black horse on a bright expressive ground, one a dark blue-and-gold pour — flanking two sculptural face masks.
On the Wall Two framed pours and two cast faces, hung together.
A photograph of a circular canvas of swirling violet, blue, and pink acrylic pour resting on a paint-marked wooden studio table.
Fresh Pour A violet tondo, newly poured, on the studio bench.
A photograph of a circular canvas of glossy violet, lilac, and white acrylic pour, still wet, on a paint-splattered wooden studio surface.
Still Wet Another tondo, still glistening, drying on the bench.
A photograph of a tall black canvas painted with the seven chakra symbols in an ascending diagonal, from the red root wheel at the base to the white crown wheel with the Aum at the top, leaning in a room.
The Seven Wheels The seven chakras ascending a black field, propped against the wall.
A photograph looking down on a paint-covered wooden studio table holding several small finished canvases: a cubist face portrait, a bird against a blue sky, a blue lace-pattern mandala, a small landscape, a purple and copper textured square, and one blank pale blue canvas waiting.
A Morning’s Work The bench mid-session — the face, the bird, a lace mandala, and one canvas still bare.
A photograph of a large canvas in progress on a paint-splattered studio table: fields of colour divided by black lines and overlaid with nine circular black discs, each bearing an ornamental mandala in turquoise, copper, violet, crimson, gold, bronze, neon green or silver, with paint tubes, bottles, palette and brushes around it.
Nine Roundels A large canvas caught mid-making, the brushes still out beside it.

The constellation is meant to be wandered; so is the hand.

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