The Constellation Of The Mammoths

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Artist, illustrator, occasional writer and lover of all things creative, Alex Beeching’s chief ambition is to be a latter day Renaissance man. To that end,  his paintings have appeared in numerous one-man and group exhibitions, and his illustrations are much sought after commercially. Armed with a degree in photography, film and imaging from the Scottish Film Academy, Beeching has braved the waters of freelance illustration and fine art since 2007.

“I have long been interested in the idea of finding one’s way, both literally and metaphorically. The stars can give you your bearings, like Polaris, or tell you your longitude and latitude. The Mesopotamians saw many things in the heavens: Orion’s belt, and the twelve signs of the zodiac to name but a few. Later, others saw different patterns there so that, for instance, the Assyrian Hired Man and the Swallow became the constellations of Aries and Pisces.
What struck me about these star maps is that with the slight effort of imagination one can see what one wants there, just as a cloud can look like a camel, a hat and a trombone respectively to different people. A constellation implies a relationship. The stars are grouped together to form a pattern and then a label is put on that pattern. Perception works in much the same way. We call a flat surface with four (although not necessarily) legs a table. But whence this identity? What defines “tableness?”
I decided to come up with my own set of imaginary constellations. First drawn in pencil, they were scanned into a computer and then turned into a negative. I have sought to make them pleasing to the eye, and to give them a stark simplicity so that they will look well in many sorts of space.”

ABOUT THE PRINT

This print is made in-house using archival pigment inks on heavyweight 100% cotton fibre archival paper. Each print is custom-trimmed and comes with a certificate of authenticity.
Edition dimensions reflect actual paper sizes, not the printed image itself. While we try to maximize image size on all prints, a minimum border of .5 inches is left to allow for easy framing.

WANT IT FRAMED?

E-mail: framing@mammothandcompany.com for a free framing consultation!