Cosmic Trigger

Full Moon - illuminated painting 153 x 183 cm 2007

"The Floating World" - illuminated painting  153 x 183 2008

"The Forgotten Land" - illuminated painting 153 x 183 cm 2008

"Temple Retreat" Illuminated painting 153 x 183 cm 2007

Illuminated Waterfall Painting 153 x 183 cm 2010

I started working on illuminated paintings in 2006. I first showed these at Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst's house in London in 2008. There is quite a cosmic story that unfolded in my studio, marking the birth of the idea. Here Antony Leyland, co-founder of Big Sky Studios and Blank collective, describes succinctly the course of events:

Katy Lynton’s work wilfully yet playfully sidesteps the mainstream of 20^th Century Art History, all its conceptual obsessions and preoccupations with abstraction. Instead it links directly to the romantic traditions of both Occidental and Oriental cultures, finding emotional, symbolic and mystical meaning in the natural world.

These links can be traced back to the ancient Japanese religion of Shinto, in which all objects, animal, vegetable and mineral are understood to possess souls, and no distinction is made between spirit and matter, life and afterlife. Once Japan’s state religion, this belief system runs through the work of artists such as Sesshu, Hokusai and Hiroshinge, whom Katy cites as some of  her most important influences.

These artists’ use of colour, design and self-symbolism imbue the Nature with a meaning incomprehensible to the west’s rational and dualistic worldview. A new direction in Katy’s work resulted from an event which, from the rational perspective, would be considered accidental; but from the animistic universe within which Katy operates, can only be seen as divine intervention; at 5.10pm, on the 17^th October 2006, Katy was participating in a universal consciousness event known as the Cosmic Trigger. At that moment, the peak hour , Katy sat down to meditate when her work in progress inexplicably fell off the wall, ripping its canvas violently against a table. Initial feelings of anger and betrayal gave way to a moment of literal enlightenment, when on picking up the canvas from the floor, a light shining through the ruined canvas from behind transformed the painting into something timeless and magical, and redirected the course of Katy’s work.

This new series of works combines traditional oil paint and canvas with lighting and electronics to create theatrical and hypnotic installations. Serenely timed cross-phasing of front and backlights transfigure raw canvas and partial gestures into full-blown visionary hallucinations. The light shining through the canvas, through the pigment, punctures the superficial to summon forth the inner life force of all things.

These works aim to disarm our intellect and revive our intuitive connection with a deeper world; a world in which the personal and universal are merged, a world which is free from contamination, totally pure, clear and present.

The exhibition was a success and all of the paintings sold. The waterfall painting was a bit later and can still be viewed in my studio along with "Searching for the Pink Cloud". Please contact me for an appointment if you wish to view the paintings.