AN ENCOUNTER WITH COMPASSION

One bright morning when I was 12 years old a small bird
that was not bothering anyone, was just perching by a leaf,
not expecting the low-velocity pellet set in motion by an asinine young boy,
suddenly lay dying upon a bed of leaves.

They say the soul is like a bird. In which case,
I had killed a soul.

Ever since that morning, through the grist and sweat of
life, through the unlived dreams and failed experiments, through loss and a
modicum of joy, through leaps of faith and pain of rebirth, the bird has
haunted me, chastised me,
guided me, freed me.

Spotting the lifeless bird among the fallen leaves shook
me to my core. It took years for me to recognise how my traumatic childhood had
paved the way for such a senseless act. In my own wounded state, I had mirrored
cruelty.

That day, confronting the darkness within, I felt a surge
of shame and dread, and deep compassion for the frail creature - a moment that
marked my solemn vow to never replicate that act of harm - and to stand
sentinel at the gates of my intentions, always guided by love.

TO LEAVE IN LOVE

Many cultures embrace the belief that the soul carries the energy, whether positive or negative, from this life into the next. This understanding underscores the importance of living with compassion and ensuring that we depart this existence in a state of love, as the energy we leave with shapes our journey in the next phase.

And therein lies the possibility of evolution,
of redemption.

THE MOST ABSTRACT PAINTING OF ALL IS THE BLANK CANVAS.

In Farid al-Din Attar’s Mediaeval Persian classic, ‘The
Conference of the Birds’, the quest for meaning ends with self-realisation. The
wise hoopoe gazes in the mirror at its own reflection.

Yet a life begins not on a blank canvas, but as a
palimpsest. Previous iterations linger.

Each change in medium or scale - painting to photograph
to print - alters the image, the meaning, evokes new apprehensions in
unexpected and sometimes revelatory ways. All is in a state of flux and the
boundaries between states are permeable.

INSPIRED BY...

visits to the Dhanakosa meditation retreat in Balquidder,
Scotland and the Butchart Gardens in Brentwood Bay, Canada, the works which
comprise ‘Leaves in Love’ are designed to facilitate collective contemplation
through a play of colour, texture and scale.

These two landscapes, so alike, formed the backbone of my
oil painting palette.

The works are the passage of a soul that has never been
‘mine’. It is not a possession but rather a fractal
which is akin to a bird or a leaf on a tree I have been privileged to assume for a time.

IN THE MANNER OF THE EARLY OPPONENTS OF PHOTOGRAPHY...

one could argue that the creation of an image is a futile
attempt to possess time by freezing the soul as the bird was frozen in the
moment of its death.

Yet the images in ‘Leaves in Love’ intend to insinuate
life, change, movement, and above all, hope, nudging us to notice what is right
within us, right in front of our eyes.

The pun in the title, of course, is deliberate, suggests
dying, departing on a journey, as well as the leaves of book or tree.

IN THE BLINDING LIGHT OF THAT MORNING, SLOWLY,

blood turned the leaves brown. I watched the soul leave
the bird’s eyes, and resolved never again gratuitously to kill another living
being. There and then the banal horror of the bird’s sacrifice generated the
architectonic of a voyage towards a possible light.

I hope you will enjoy ‘Leaves in Love’, as we journey
together. 

REVEALING THE UNSEEN

The pigment canvases reveal the hidden essence of the oil
paintings making them 'originals' in their own right. They are created over
days and weeks, from the 'mold' of the oil paintings using high resolution
photography to blossom the concealed beauty of the small hand-painted oils,
creating a unique experience all on their own.

Every handcrafted mark, colour and shape from the oil
paintings is captured and revealed through the photographic process by Sarmed himself. AI has NOT been applied to CREATE any colours, textures or shapes of the artwork.