09/04/2016

 

 

Artists Statement

 

Ecological tragedy inspires Stephen Meakin to paint mandala Plastic pollution along a beach Anegada in 1995

In the spring of 1995 I found myself on a little-known Island called Anegada in the Caribbean Sea. To all extents this would be an island paradise surrounded by a coral reef with crystal clear waters of turquoise blue teeming with tropical fish. I was walking alone along the eastern shoreline when I looked ahead I could see hundreds of old plastic bottles and trashed fishing nets. It was a plastic wasteland. To say I was devastated is an understatement, but at that moment of heart-break and acute sensitivity I realised that 'everything is connected'. I returned to England as an Artist with a mission and decided to commit to finding a way to express and illuminate this 'interconnectedness' but not in some abstract way but in a way that was concrete that everybody could understand. Before I left the paradise beach I drew my first ever circle in the sand. At the exact moment I completed the circle, I felt something touch me that was inexplicable totally beyond anything I had experienced before. Really it was like I had a new sense purpose of service together with a deep compassion for the Earth and everything that lives on it. Although I had no idea how to express this feeling but it had something to do with the circle.

 

Mandala Sand Circle by Stephen Meakin Mandala Artist Stephen Meakin makes a circle in the sand

 

I treat the making of 'Art as Ritual'. This really fascinates me, and as I prime and prepare my canvas I am already in a state of reverence and openness for whatever may unfold. The mystery of working with number and pattern is that the language of geometry is somehow both deeply personal and impersonal at the same time. When I combine the engineering and drawing tools that I have at my disposal, with the colours from my paint-box, I have in front of me the very palette of my being. This ever expanding palette is the sum of everything I have learned up until the moment of creation. As I observe nature I'm always amazed by the roundness of things like the time, the sun, the moon and my mother's eyes. There is something utterly beautiful that we meet when we are very young, to me this is excelsis. In the apparent chaos of nature there appears to be some deep order, as if there is a hidden substructure that holds everything together. It is this idea of an underlying structural pattern in nature that I investigate in my paintings, and this is how I explore and express the idea that everything is interconnected. 

 

Maybe the reason why older spiritual traditions have this concept of interconnectedness embedded within them is because the societies that adopt this idea are the ones that, over time, deepen their level of consideration and understanding for each other and for the life on the planet. This is the reason that the idea of interconnectedness seems to be at the core of spiritual tradition, and this concept appears to be at the core of today's science as matter, energy and life itself. I cannot help but be somewhat antagonistic towards the modern world believing that it is travelling in the wrong direction, but instead of projecting this antagonism outwards I choose to internalise the essence of this discord and the result is a kind of Floral Display from the very heart of my being. In the last 20 years of practising this kind of artistic expression I have become very effective in transmitting my ideas on to the canvas, and I am skilled in creating the forms that now clothe my message. The resultant art is dramatic and explosive, and it is this that catches the eye of my patrons yet always within the work lies a deeper peaceful place. I believe we can transform the ecology of our planet and I can gently educate people's minds by the subtle use of harmonic frequency expressed through geometry as hidden messages within the picture composition.

 

Link to Stephen Meakin Artists Biography.

 

 

10/01/2019

 

Below is Transformation 2000AD - 150cm x 150cm - Indian Inks and Gouche with gold leaf on 340mg fine art paper.

 

Stephen Meakin's Butterfly Mandala Mandala Transformation by Stephen Meakin painted in 2000AD

 

 

"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration." – Nikola Tesla

 

 

Print | Sitemap
The Mandala Company 2021. Contact: info@themandalacompany.com. All Images and Designs are Copyright ©Stephen Meakin All Rights Reserved, World Rights Reserved, Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

Copyright permission fact sheet from the UK Copyright Service.