A month ago, while searching the web for the paintings of Grev Kafi, I came across a website with most sublime sculptures of a young Ukrainian artist, Alexey Leonov (when you search his name, you find only pages with the Soviet cosmonaut of the same name).

Not much substantial information is given about him on the website except:

“Alexey’s arts have a meaningful positive charge, inducing people’s unification, heartening people to moral and spiritual ideals. For the period from 2005 through 2014 there were more than 50 personal exhibitions in the cities of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. His works now can be found in more than 30 cities world over, such as Chicago, Houston, Strasbourg, Le Bourget, Cologne, Varna, Mumbai, Calcutta, Beijing, Astana, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Irkutsk, Kaluga, Kiev, Simferopol, and others.”

His artwork shows a great mastery of subtle form-giving, and the content of his sculptures speak of his profound background: You find a great number of statues and portraits of great spiritual personalities of East and West, of Masters of Wisdom like Morya, Koot Hoomi, St. Germain, of Rishis and Avatars, of great outposts of culture and society. Among his sculptures you find great heroes and teachers of the Orient and Occident – Pythagoras, Plato, Akbar, Ramakrishna, Helena P. Blavatsky, Helena and Nicholas Roerich and their children, Krishna, Arjuna, Buddha, but also a series of sculptures of Christ and Christian saints and angels.

Most of his works are in chamotte (firesand), but also in bronze. He also did a number of monumental sculptures.

I wrote to Alexey asking for permission for publishing some images of his sculptures and he consented – thank you! (and thanks for Google translator helping to understand Ukrainian). On his website, you also find 2 YouTube videos. And you can download the images in high resolution.

May the beauty of the spirit expressing through the sculptures of this great artist uplift those who see them.

Gemini is ruled by Mercury, the Greek Hermes; he is the Lord of Speech. Gemini is related to the vocal cords and Visuddhi, the throat chakra. Through the vocal cords, the air connects the inner with the outer space. The word is expressed through our breath by the messenger, symbolized by Mercury. In meditation, the throat centre is also the entrance into the element of space called Akasha in the East.

The doorway of Gemini is symbolized by the two pillars of the sign representing the polarity of seeming opposites or the dual nature of the mind. The colour of the Gemini and the throat chakra is described as a shade of green which produces blue; it has a great healing effect. The crystals of copper sulphate give an idea of this colour.

In this image, you see Mercury standing between two bluish pillars. There is an influx of yellow-green light from above. Mercury wears a hat with two wings, which are depicted partly concrete, partly etheric – symbol of the Messenger of the Gods or the Light; it radiates through his eyes. His face is half light blue, half golden yellow, representing the dual nature of the mind and of the Buddhic plane. His throat centre of bluish-green colour radiates into space.

I created its colour with the help of a photo of crystals of copper sulphate. And Mercury with the help of a plaster bust of Mercury by the French artist François Rude.

24 February 2015, pencils and photo work

A week ago, I discovered the sublime paintings of an artist couple from Moldavia. The visionary painters Evdokia Fidel’skaya and Grigoriy Kabachnyi (born in 1932) work in co-authorship under the pseudonym Grev Kafi. They have created a huge oeuvre of incredibly subtle and luminous paintings, inspired by theosophy and the sacred teachings of East and West.

I took the following information (partly translated with Google Translator) from a Russian website about their paintings with a beautiful slideshow, from a Russian website about Grev Kafi, and from the Grev Kafi Museum project in Chisinau. Thanks to the artists Grev Kafi for allowing me to publish this blogpost and and thus help spreading their paintings.

After graduating from a University of Fine Arts in 1963, the artist couple lived 15 years in Tian Shan Mountains located between China and Kyrgyzstan. They met there the monumental work of Blavatsky and it changed their lives. Later, the acquaintance with the Agni Yoga Teachings (“Living Ethics”, Nicholas and Helena Roerich) gave them another profound inspiration.

However, for a long time, they had to work in secrecy, and the creative efforts of their work was not understood nor accepted, but they continued to work intensively. They lived very humbly, and all the money was spent on the canvas, paints, books, travel.

At the invitation of the Ministry of Culture of the Moldavian government in 1978, the artists moved to Chisinau. Their house is a creative workshop in Chisinau, a real island of harmony which is constantly visited by people from all over the world.

In the late eighties the painters’ art received a rising success, and they began to participate in Moldavian and Russian exhibitions and organised exhibitions of their own. Their creations can be found in many cities of the world and at the Theosophical Society in Adyar, India.

But the real success came when they created a series of paintings on the theme of “The Secret Doctrine”, H.P Blavatsky, the “Living Ethics” and the phenomena of the subtle world, and they recreated the 22 Great Arcana Tarot.

To give an impression of their work, I created a powerpoint presentation (28 MB), here as a PDF (4.8 MB). When I searched today on the web, I found many more paintings of Grev Kafi on a website in Russian dedicated to their paintings, just click on the links in the centre or on the left navigation, and also in the slideshow mentioned above. They are not included in powerpoint.

Many paintings are stored in a old dilapidated storage facility. For their salvation and safety, it is planned to build the “Grev Kafi Museum” in Chisinau, Republic of Moldavia. If you want to support this important Museum project with financial aid or other help, please find more information /bank account details on the website. On their website, you also find a number of videos. Here is the YouTube channel of Grev Kafi and here a collection on Google+.

And below you find a little slideshow with some of the theosophical paintings of the artists and a video. Enjoy!

A visit at their home:

The lingam is a fundamental symbol of creation, of the primary form emerging from the formless state. The expression of the divine Will is like a spark on the background of boundless blue. It has six projections from its centre, the six dimensions, giving the form of a double pyramid, which is also understood as a form of the lingam.

The divine Word comes forth through the vibrations in space which are compared to the roaring of the bull of Shiva. In Taurus, the constellation Rohini known in the West as Aldebaran is considered as the Eye of the Bull or the point of utterance of the divine Word. This eye is located in us in the third eye on the forehead. In the temples consecrated to Shiva the Lord in the form of a lingam should be seen through the horns of the bull situated outside the temple.

In the picture you see the double pyramid and the lingam through the horns of the bull. In the background I placed an image of the constellation of Taurus with Aldebaran in the centre. The star is surrounded by a lotus, the principle of unfoldment. Around the one central point there is a globe with the three original spectral colours unfolding to the central column with the seven colours of the rainbow. They represent the seven planes of creation or the higher Antahkarana on our forehead. The fiery red sphere of the lingam on the blue background expresses the potency of the divine Will bringing forth the creation. The central symbols taken together give the form of the divine Eye.

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.

25 January 2015, pencils and photo work

The earliest legends of the history of India mention two dynasties, the “race of the Sun” (Surya Vansha) and the “race of the Moon” (Chandra Vansha). The Solar Dynasty of the “Sons of the Sun” was the first ray royal dynasty, to which Lord Rama belonged. Master Morya, who is of fiery nature, belongs to the Solar Dynasty and is its last representative. He is the Master of the sun sign Aries and represents the Fire on our planet.

For this painting I used the photo of a huge solar eruption and one of the crescent earth to symbolize the descent of the Sons of the Sun onto our planet. In the background I created the path of descent and spheres of blue and red indicating the process of reception.

At the bottom I placed a picture of Master Morya and merged two crowns for his headwear, with a solar disc in the background.

Dr. K. P. Kumar explained the symbolism in lectures:

“In the ancient past, there was the Solar Dynasty, the Lunar Dynasty and the Dynasty of the Yadavas. We can rightfully say that the Solar Dynasty was the first ray royal dynasty. The Lunar Dynasty was the second ray dynasty, which also was royal. The Yadava Dynasty was the mixed quality. It was the dynasty of the third ray, and was also a royal dynasty. In it there was the mixture of intelligent activity of the third ray and the wisdom of the second ray. They carried wisdom and also intelligent activity.

The culture of solar dynasty still exists in some parts of Rajasthan in India. Master Maruvu (Morya) is a descendent of the solar dynasty; he is a descendent of Lord Rama. That is why his vision, speech and work are straight-forward. He is of fiery nature.”

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.

14 December 2014, pencils and photo work

In Eastern wisdom, the content of space is called Akasha. The impressions of the past cycles of life are recorded in the ‘Akashic records’, a kind of subtle photography. In ‘Spiritual Astrology’, Pisces represents this ‘tablet of the universe’ on which an initiate can read the past, present and future of the whole creation. Pisces also preserves the information about the human frame and its relationship with the frame of the cosmic man, which is hidden in the depths of our consciousness.

To illustrate the opening of the sacred content of space with its subtle records, I used an image of the stained glass windows of a Gothic cathedral, which I transformed and duplicated. For the cosmic man I extracted from an Indian painting the face of Ishvara, the Master consciousness of the universe and in our own being. On his forehead, you see the path of light connecting the pineal and pituitary – the representatives of the two fishes of Pisces. And above there is the crown of the head centre.

Below, I placed the “blue marble” of our Earth as the sphere of our life. I super-imposed the image of an embryo, symbolizing that our frame is made in the image and likeness of the cosmic man and that it is in a process of unfoldment.

Pisces is ruled by Neptune, who helps us to merge our lower consciousness (personality) into the higher consciousness or group-consciousness. I used a photo of Neptune to create the background of the image and to give it the mystic note, for Neptune is the soul of our solar Logos and is linked to the cosmic soul of our universe.

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.

17 November 2014, pencils and photo work

On a very subtle plane, colour and sound converge and become one. This plane is related to Aquarius and to a supra-cosmic musical intelligence whom the Vedas call Vena the Gandharva. The Vedas say, he merrily sings the “song of light”. The Greek Apollo is no other than Vena; through his influence the sound- and light principles of the higher planes are expressed in identical scales.

Meditating on these correspondences, an image arose in me of Apollo with a musical instrument super-imposed on his face and light pouring down from above.

For the painting I chose a black and white photo of a head of Apollo and converted it into light yellow. I found the picture of a beautiful classical instrument, the “Viola d’Amore” (Viola of Love). It is used like a violin and has a sweet, warm sound. There are 6 or 7 playing strings on the top and the same number of “sympathetic strings” below – a beautiful symbol of the 6 pairs of signs of the zodiac or of the 7 planes of creation in the manifest and in the subtle spheres. I placed the instrument on the face of Apollo so that the upper part with the pegs and the head is like a stair towards the spheres of light. There is a second viola merging with the face of Apollo and a part of a nearly invisible third one surrounding the head like an aureole.

For the background, I first took a photo of Uranus and merged it with another one of a star cluster from the constellation Aquarius. Though you don’t recognize these elements anymore, they are there in the “background” of this painting. And the light coming from above looks like pouring down from out of the nearly invisible Aquarian pot.

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.

Aquarius – Apollo and the Song of Light

We just have entered the month of Capricorn. In spiritual astrology, Capricorn symbolises the time of dawn on the different scales: the daily sunrise, the dawn of the year, or the birth of the creational intelligences, the awakening of the gods.

To illustrate these different planes, I started with a photo of a sunrise seen from an airplane. The partly visible sun symbolises that our visible sun is an expression of the invisible parts. According to the Scriptures, only one quarter is visible, while three quarters remain hidden. The surrounding petals of three layers of a sunflower and the flames above depict the radiance of the subtle planes.

In the centre, you see the depiction of the three basic forces of creational activity, pervasion and destruction – Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. I created this three-headed unity by transforming a picture of a brownish copper statue into blue with golden ornaments. The statue was done on the basis of the famous Trimurti, a huge sculpture of the three-headed divinity in the caves of Elephanta Island, Mumbai. The serpent is a symbol of the unfoldment of time and the forces of life (Kundalini).

For the background, I chose a photo of the constellation of Capricorn. In many of my paintings you see a dark blue background with stars. It symbolises the background of the unmanifest space, from out of which all manifestations emerge – you cannot illustrate the unmanifest. The blue of the statues of Gods refers to their origin from the unknowable background.

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.

Capricorn – The Sunrise

05 September 2014, pencils and photo work

Some kind of a Christmas present: The French TV channel France 2 is running a talent show “Prodiges”, about high talent children in the fields of classical dance, music and song. For their program of 27 December, they have realised an extraordinary flashmob at the “Centre Commercial de Beaugrenelle”, at Paris. Here you find photos about the “making of”, and here videos of different young talents. I don’t like boosting children under the label of “child prodigy” with the related pressure of competition and career but just enjoy the joy of the young performers.

Not a talent show, but if you want to send some Christmas greetings to a friend, you find here some e-cards with pictures I took during the last winters.

Photo from the YouTube video (c France 2)

I just came across a petition on Change.org addressed to Mr. Vladimir V. Putin, the President of the Russian Federation, with an appeal to prevent the destruction of the non-governmental Museum named after Nicholas Roerich and to provide assistance to the Museum.

I immediately signed this petition. I deeply admire the work of Nicholas Roerich and I have published a number of blog-posts about him, also about the new museum.

The Ministry of Culture of Russia headed by Mr. V. R. Medinsky is aiming at taking away from the ICR the Roerichs heritage, thus destroying the non-governmental Museum. You find more details on the the page of Change.org with the appeal. On the website of the museum, there is also a call for help and international protection.

The Roerich-Museum, Moscow

If you also like the beautiful art of Nicholas Roerich, you might also sign the petition and disseminate it among your friends and acquaintances, as a little contribution to the preservation of the museum, for the culture of Russia and the whole world.

Madonna Oriflamma, holding the Banner of Peace