‘Compassion Fruit’ (Oil painting on canvas by Alan Rayner, 2008). The confluence of classical elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water via a zero-point at their vertical-horizontal intersection, enables the emergence of a Passiflora vine, symbolizing the natural inclusion of Love in Life.
‘Channel No 5’ (Oil painting on canvas by Alan Rayner, 2007) Come on you Two; Won’t you fuse with us Three; So that we no longer have to be Rivals? In an Olympic Golden Sovereignty; Of One on either side of offence; That makes you over Into binary opposition. An oddly singular couple; Of thrust and counter-thrust; In action and reaction; That denies the even handedness; Of your giving and taking; To and from each receptive and responsive influence; A tidal flow that empties; As it fills and fills; As it empties; In a chord with circumstantial need; To keep a breast;In tune with Mother; Who can give; No more than she can provide; If she is to sustain her sustaining; Identity of one in All and all in One; A world with out end; In which none can begin; Without being taken in; Amend. Inspired by the traditional song, ‘Green Grow the Rushes, O’, and by the ‘transfigural mathematics’ of Nigerian mathematician, Lere Shakunle
‘Stitching in Time’ (Oil painting on board by Alan Rayner, 2020). Every moment is a turning point; In ever-present current; Carrying life across the gaps; In human memory; From future into past; Without a pause for thought; Yet dancing in the Stillness; The play of light in void; That brings relief to form; Flowing here and there in rhythms; Receiving and responding; In continuous relay; Throughout the day; Throughout the night; From season into season; Without the need for reason; To divide, make whole or keep to straight and narrow; Only dying to pass on
‘Confluence’ (Oil painting on board by Alan Rayner, 2021) Here combined are the local tangible elements of Earth (solid), Water (liquid) and Air (gas) formed from the intangible elements of Fire/light and Space/darkness, symbolized further by the two wings, two tail streamers and head and body of an arctic tern (which migrates annually between Arctic and Antarctic circles). We also see a transition from radial/spherical symmetry associated with stillness and bilateral symmetry associated with movement. Correspondingly, the imagery symbolizes the vitality of the mutually inclusive bodily and soulful/spiritual middle in bringing seemingly opposite but actually complementary viewpoints (as per left and right wings) into confluence.
