fire painter

“Fire, indisputably, has deep meaning and symbolism in our collective unconscious. As one of the four primeval elements alongside earth, water, and air, fire has come to symbolise a profound range of opposites, from death to birth, tranquility and rage, creation and destruction, hell and heaven, to light and darkness” – Russell Maier.

These beautiful pictures is the result of merging education in philosophy, wide-ranging practice in graphic design and excitement about expressive process of their creator – Russell Maier.
“Fire was a subject of a portrait”. First, Maier produced simple paintings to make the colour of the fire stand out against the smoothness of oil paint and then he created the photographs balancing out fuel, lighting and contrast.
As it is possible to gaze at a flame for hours being mesmerised by its continuous dangerous dance, it is possible to look at Maier’s experiments with the feeling of appreciation of the beautiful but simultaneously destructive force of the fire.