ABOUT THE SERIES 'leaves in love'
One bright morning when I was 12 years old a small bird that was not bothering anyone, was just perching by a leaf, not expecting the low-velocity pellet set in motion by an asinine young boy, suddenly lay dying upon a bed of leaves.
They say the soul is like a bird. In which case, I had killed a soul.
Ever since that morning, through the grist and sweat of life, through the unlived dreams and failed experiments, through loss and a modicum of joy, through leaps of faith and pain of rebirth, the bird has haunted me, chastised me, guided me,
freed me.
ENCOUNTER WITH COMPASSION
Spotting the lifeless bird among the fallen leaves shook me to my core. It took years for me to recognise how my traumatic childhood had paved the way for such a senseless act. In my own wounded state, I had mirrored cruelty.
That day, confronting the darkness within, I felt a surge of shame and dread, and deep compassion for the frail creature - a moment that marked my solemn vow to never replicate that act of harm - and to stand sentinel at the gates of my intentions, always guided by love.
The most abstract painting of all is the blank canvas.
In Farid al-Din Attar’s Mediaeval Persian classic, ‘The Conference of the Birds’, the quest for meaning ends with self-realisation. The wise hoopoe gazes in the mirror at its own reflection.
Yet a life begins not on a blank canvas, but as a palimpsest. Previous iterations linger.
Many cultures embrace the notion of impermanence, the idea that a soul traverses realms carrying energy, both positive and negative. These ideas emphasise the importance of cultivating a compassionate world and of departing this existence in a state of love.
And therein lies the possibility of evolution, of redemption.
Each change in medium or scale - painting to photograph to print - alters the image, the meaning, evokes new apprehensions in unexpected and sometimes revelatory ways. All is in a state of flux and the boundaries between states are permeable.
Inspired by...
visits to the Dhanakosa meditation retreat in Balquidder, Scotland and the Butchart Gardens in Brentwood Bay, Canada, the works which comprise ‘Leaves in Love’ are designed to facilitate collective contemplation through a play of colour, texture and scale.
These two landscapes, so alike, formed the backbone of my oil painting palette.
The works are the passage of a soul that has never been ‘mine’. It is not a possession but rather a fractal which is akin to a bird or a leaf on a tree I have been privileged to assume for a time.
In the manner of the early opponents of photography...
one could argue that the creation of an image is a futile attempt to possess time by freezing the soul as the bird was frozen in the moment of its death.
Yet the images in ‘Leaves in Love’ intend to insinuate life, change, movement, and above all, hope, nudging us to notice what is right within us, right in front of our eyes.
The pun in the title, of course, is deliberate, suggests dying, departing on a journey, as well as the leaves of book or tree.
In the blinding light of that morning, slowly,
blood turned the leaves brown. I watched the soul leave the bird’s eyes, and resolved never again gratuitously to kill another living being. There and then the banal horror of the bird’s sacrifice generated the architectonic of a voyage towards a possible light.
I hope you will enjoy ‘Leaves in Love’, as we journey together.
In the words of reviewer Suhayl Saadi
“Paint is cut from seams deep in the Earth and the ‘Leaves in Love’ are dancing sculptures.
As one becomes more immersed, the boundary between the observed and the observer gradually dissipates. The bird turns to flame, then to a corpuscle pulsing through our heart, then to the breath of a saint on stained glass, then to a fleck of stone on a Caledonian hillside, the glint of a gem in the crown of an Iron Age queen, a beach at low tide, the sound of an arpeggio…
One emerges from ‘Leaves in Love’ conscious of an ontological shift, a changed view of the cosmos and of oneself. And that, surely, is the prime function of art.”
(Read the full review by Suhayl Saadi)
Revealing the unseen
digital pigment print on
The pigment canvases are archival canvas to reveal the hidden essence of the original. making them 'originals' in their own right. They are created over days and weeks, from the 'mold' of the oil paintings using high resolution photography to blossom the concealed beauty of the small hand-painted oils, creating a unique experience all on their own.
Every handcrafted mark, colour and shape from the oil paintings is captured and revealed through the photographic process by Sarmed himself. AI or any other artificial digital manipulation has NOT been applied to CREATE any colours, textures or shapes of the artwork.
Limited edition canvases are released in four sizes, 40x40cm, 70x70cm, 100x100cm, 120x120cm and 145x145cm.
Hand-signed and numbered at the back.
LEAVES IN LOVE | Limited edition digital pigment prints
'The rustle I woke up to'
Whispering wind, warm sun, probably too cheesy to say hammock.
Unveiling the small sized original's hidden potential through a unique offering of print-originals.
From £125
'WE MADE IT TOGETHER'
Soul and mind, technique and intuition,
bread and jam.
Limited edition original-prints
available in 4 sizes.
40x40cm, 70x70cm, 100x100cm
and 120x120cm.
From £125
'Triumph of the sunbeam'
Sunbeams that made it here, became us.
Limited edition original-prints of each size will never be reprinted in this format again.
From £125
LEAVES IN LOVE | Limited edition digital pigment prints
'To fresh beginnings'
Just one more time, if that's what it takes.
These digital pigment prints are archival with lightfastness of over 100 years.
From £125
'what a rush'
What's the rush, anyway. No one escapes.
All prints come unstretched and unframed. We can provide framing at an additional cost. Check for more info via the 'Framing' link at the top.
From £125
'we lay in peace'
Ah ... to love and to sleep so deeply.
Which I would love to hear from you. Send a message, join the newsletter or connect on social media.
From £125
LEAVES IN LOVE | Limited edition digital pigment prints
'Found a way home'
Going for a long walk,
will be back soon.
The paintings are done in oil, sometimes with acrylic base, on museum quality gessbord.
Digital enlargements of images are prepared by Sarmed personally using state of the art technology.
From £125
'another step closer'
Surely not everything has been done so far under the sun, boundless iterations await.
Going rogue with buttery paint and seeing the not so obvious aspects of the painting emerge when enlarged still excite me like a child.
Then I want to do it all over again.
From £125
'sway to a new tune'
Keep moving, keep stirring, keep, digging.
I would love to hear from you. Send a message, join the newsletter or connect on social media, say hello.
From £125
