'DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL OF THE FEMININE DIVINE - A PORTRAIT OF GRIEF' 2022 MELANI DU JARDIN OIL ON BOARD FRAMED 61 X 99 CM

ORIGINAL FRAMED OIL PAINTING BY MELANI DU JARDIN

This work is heavily symbolic, and was painted right in the crucible of betrayal and abandonment. The work was begun just days after the artist was betrayed and abandoned by a key attachment figure in her life. 

“I remember at this point I had been learning a lot about the archetypes of masculine and feminine and divine energy and all I could think of through my tears, was Sedna. How her father rescued her from a husband who betrayed her peace only to be betrayed by her father as well. At this point in my life I felt immensely alone as if in a great ocean of sadness. The red roses that my love would give me fell apart along with the life we were building once all of the lies surfaced. Although it was intensely painful, to was good to be in clear water again instead f the murkiness of lies, deceit and half truths. The act of painting helped the pain go away, but each time I stopped, it came back. I had never felt such a deep deep grief as this. I was painting obsessively. If I stopped it hurt too much. So I kept going. Fifteen works and four years later and things are slowly righting themselves to peace again.”