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AIR painting- The Third painting in the Elemental Series

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AIR painting-  The Third painting in the Elemental Series

Here is my third painting in the contemporary, symbolic Elemental Series. The painting titled AIR is my submission to this week's "Gone With the Wind" Challenge theme for The Artists Challenge. Again, as with the other two paintings previously shown, (FIRE and WATER), I have researched and woven the symbolic elements together to create this image.
How do you portray air? Space, aura, atmosphere, breathing, feathers of birds, clouds, angels and winged insects like ladybugs all are symbolic of air. Air is indicative of the mental plane; thought, logic, language, communication, the abstract, and the intellect. The keyword associated with air is life. It is principally considered to be masculine, and the angel associated with air is Raphael.
The painting is a complicated composition. With this piece, I needed to create the illusion of space. My intent was to have a mask of sorts, floating in space that you were looking through - at clouds floating by. The mask is blowing air toward the viewer - so is it really a mask? Superimposed over the larger ladybug "mask", in a very textured layer, is an angel with wings outstretched. These wings are also part of the eyes which are made up of peacock feathers.
All of these layers contribute to relate my interpretation of this element. My reasoning behind this approach, as I have stated before, is to engage people in looking at a deeper level at the images before them - creating questions in their mind. Which layer do you look at first? Is there still something else that you may not be seeing? It creates a push pull effect, both visually and intellectually. I want to make people question what they see. What is reality and what is illusion?