Romance Awareness Month: Innocent Love in Art
Sadly, we’re at the tail end of Romance Awareness Month, but we’ve still got a few artworks up our sleeves to celebrate love in all its glory.
So far, we’ve explored tragic and complicated love, but what about its more innocent beginnings? That time before feelings changed, hearts were broken and the illusion of Hollywood romance fell apart. Let’s take a look at innocent love.
Adoration by Robyn Gray.
Robyn Gray’s artwork Adoration depicts this kind of naive love with her piece portraying a little boy and a cat. The romantic, impressionist piece was inspired by a photograph her sister took in Greece.
“When we were children, our pets were our first love,” Robyn says.
“Who’s looking at who? A mesmerising moment captured in time.”
Robyn’s piece recalls the first, deep love that many people have for their furry, feathered or scaly friends.
Safe in My Tiger Suit by Gaye Tait.
With a similar idea of innocent love, Gaye Tait has created an artwork inspired by the bond between a mother and her child.
“This is my interpretation of how mothers everywhere love and protect their children,” Gaye says.
“The title, Safe in My Tiger Suit, speaks of how a child feels safe and loved in his mother’s arms.
“In his little imagination he is safe because of his tiger suit but in reality he is safe because of his mum.”
Although platonic, the love between parent and child is perhaps the most powerful connection we can experience.
In a Beautiful Pea Green Boat by Sara Cantena
Often the relationship between fictional characters, such as The Owl and the Pussy Cat from Edward Lear’s classic poem, offers our first insight into love.
Running away in “a beautiful pea green boat,” buying the ring from a pig’s nose for a shilling, getting married by a turkey and dancing the night away by the light of the moon – for many, it’s hard to imagine a more idyllic scenario!
The poem is one of artist Sara Cantena’s favourites, so she has joyfully recreated it.
Transcendence by Hayley Kruger.
Sometimes a simple gesture is all you need to illustrate the feeling of love – whether it’s innocent, reciprocated, tragic or complicated.
Transcendence by Hayley Kruger portrays the vast spectrum of love through a flower.
“This is not a conventional ‘I love you’,”says Hayley.
“Orange roses are usually a combination symbolising desire, enthusiasm or pride.
“The colours of the sunset in this fiery rose are confident and passionate yet soft, like candlelight dancing over satin sheets.”
These innocent experiences of love, although naive, produce some of the rawest and most honest emotion we can experience as humans.
Header Image: 1973 Photo Of Childhood Friends By Joseph Crachiola
