Love and Wisdom

In this art book Jonathan Allan Farrell presents his artwork spanning over the last decade that conveys the themes of love and wisdom. His most recent acrylic figurative works revolve around his spiritual exploration.

Employing an art style that reveals his expressionistic subjectivity, his choice of a high-key colour palette, and gestural mark-making imbues his work with the energy and excitement that is normally relegated to drawing, yet retains the sensitivity and skill of high-realism painting. Leaning heavily on the principle of optical colour mixing, he loves exploring how brushstrokes can appear to be jarring, loose, and abstract when viewed closely, but then, when the same painting is viewed from a distance, these brushstrokes can lock together to create a cohesive, highly representational whole. By giving room for expression in his work, he ultimately invites the viewer to move past a cerebral analysis of his visual observations and be impacted by his emotional response to his subjects.

Jonathan finds fulfillment in taking time to meditate and pray and has intentionally left the exact meanings of each piece in this book allusive in order to allow each viewer to bring their own interpretation. However, through the strategic use of titles, he hopes to guide his audience's focus towards the themes of love, wisdom, and, ultimately, redemption and hope.