Climate of Change

Climate of Change, 30 x 30 cm acrylic on canvas, © Olivier Hijmans 2015

A snapshot of an ever changing landscape, moving from desert to forest, from warm to cold.. Like many of my landscapes, this panorama shows multiple horizons, being less linear than it appears at first glance.. just as the human mind itself and our perceptions..

You can see the swirls of weather shaping the surroundings. The distant sun has witnessed many changing climates come and go, persistently carving and polishing the never finished sculpture called Earth..

I painted this in December 2015, now giving it the long awaited release it deserves...
For sale on Saatchi Art.

Reach Out

Reach Out, 60x60 cm acrylic on canvas © Olivier Hijmans, 2016

I do enjoy painting wide landscapes and horizons. In the early days, it was hard to believe or understand that another land might exist beyond the horizon. But we had a strong sense that there would be something there, though we had no idea what those lands would look like and who their inhabitants were. Ships sailing to the edge were destined to fall off of the face of the Earth, many feared.. a now very illogical scenario to us of course, freely flying around the globe and across the continents.

Still, I imagine we cherish the same perspective when gazing at galactic horizons in outer space.. Some of us do have a hunch that ET civilizations might exist, and some believe we have been visited by some of them. Yet many will claim our ships, or theirs, would never be able to break through the light-speed barrier, let alone safely cover any intergalactic distance..

This I find to be a very fascinating paradigm. Are there other Worlds out there? Will we ever be able to reach out to them? And when we do, who and what will we find? Our interaction with an ET civilization would most likely not be very linear. It would probably be mind bending, uncomfortable, exiting, and deeply transformative to both. Their World may somewhat resemble ours, or it might be a completely upside down experience to us. Even the most deserted desert might contain a hidden wealth of life, and the cosmos might turn out to be teeming with life, like a fresh green forest in spring. Maybe one day our Blue Marble will be their Blue Marble and vice versa. Fundamentally and playfully engaging in the struggle to reach out to each other, all connected in the eternally flowing river of existence...

For sale on Saatchiart.

Spaceship Earth

Spaceship Earth, acrylic on canvas © Olivier Hijmans 2015

What do we have here? Floating above the Earth.. some unidentified entity, emerging from or approaching the blue surface? Or lines and structures launched from the moon in all directions? An unseen connection between our home and outer space? Humanity reaching for the stars? The scope of this scene is simply as wide or narrow as the World view one projects onto it.
The idea of Earth as a spaceship is a tantalizing one. In the words of Buckminster Fuller: "I’ve often heard people say: ‘I wonder what it would feel like to be on board a spaceship,’ and the answer is very simple. What does it feel like? That’s all we have ever experienced. We are all astronauts on a little spaceship called Earth." What's more, he even wrote an operating manual for it!
I've painted this in 2015, hoping it will trigger some cosmic perspective in the beholder. What is this little blue home in the vast blackness? What is our responsibility for it? Can we treasure it? Will we able to reach out as one united civilization and contact our cosmic neighbors..?

Earthrise

Earthrise, 20 x 20 cm acrylic on canvas © Olivier Hijmans 2014

 "We went to the Moon as technicians; we returned as humanitarians"

-Edgar Mitchell

On February 4th this year, Sir Edgar Mitchell passed away. He was the 6th Human being to walk on the moon. Like many astronauts who had the unparalleled privilege to gaze at entire wonder of the "blue marble", Mitchell was awestruck at the sight. More than any other spacefarer, he was able to articulate his profound experience and insight at seeing our distant home suspended in star-filled blackness. He describes in detail how he experienced the fundamental interconnectedness of al things in the universe, including his own body and mind. It was a very personal and very physical as well as spiritual experience. He even said it felt as if the entire cosmos was like one living entity, and that it appeared to be conscious. Back on Earth, this experience triggered his thorough search through scientific and eventually mystic literature to find some sort of 'documentary proof' for his actual experience, and he even went on to found a scientific research center for consciousness studies. A very interesting, sincere and well-informed man, Mitchell was also very outspoken on the 'ET issue', stating that he had sufficient inside information to conclude that "we have been visited".

In any case, seeing the Earth from outer space generally seems to open one's mind to the infinite preciousness of life and nature, the insanity of war, the pointlessness of such concepts as 'borders' and, at the same time, it seems to evoke a sense the great cosmic potential of Human civilization. In the words of Edgar Mitchell: "Thát's a 'wow'..."

I painted 'Earthrise' in 2014, and have now decided to dedicate it to the late Edgar Mitchell, whose integrity, research and vision will always be a great source of inspiration for me.