Olivia Pendergast
The Light That We Are
Opens 29 March 2025
Artist's Statement
Our world has been sweetly misguided as we crave and seek objects, experiences and relationships to cure our hunger for happiness. It is a simple misunderstanding.
We set our sights on an object, (or a relationship or experience), and we go in search of it. We become determined and there is a tension in our body as we tell the story that we have to get it. When we finally have the object we feel a release from the search and we feel what we call "happiness". It seems to be true, deep happiness but what we miss is that it was not the acquisition of the thing that made us experience happiness, ( which only lasts a few days, a few hours, a few moments...) It was the end of the seeking that actually gave us a glimpse into our true nature, into the peace and happiness that we already are. The cessation of seeking, the contentment in the moment, revealed the light that we already are.
That is all that happiness is. The end of seeking.
What we call "happiness" is the same as Awareness and is the only constant in our lives that gives us a sense of continuity from moment to moment. It is underlying and is veiled by the craving, the searching. We already are that light, it just becomes veiled with our thinking, feeling and perceptions that are tinted by dissatisfaction because thought can only occur in time, the past or the future, and time always creates dissatisfaction.
Trying to capture in paint, this insight, the light and knowingness that we already are, is challenging beyond words. In fact, none of these words are true as words make us refer to the past or future and this contentment cannot be in time. It is only now.
So, I paint to try to create a visual of the perfection of what we are, already, without even trying. I am not referring to the physical form that we wear or even the thinking, feeling and experiences of our egos... What is prior to the thoughts? Just Awareness. The Awareness that is peering from behind, or through, the senses. The Awareness that simply notices the taste of a ripe pear, the seeing the soft pink of a rose and the hearing of the sound of the wind in the bamboo.
The iconic halo seen in paintings from centuries before was an attempt to show this holiness/ consciousness/awareness in the elevated members of society. But to someone who notices auras it is evident that everyone, spare none, walks in light and is light. We have just forgotten.
In some of the paintings the figures are metaphorically stitched into their environment, thinking, believing they are separate from their world, but in reality they are borne of the same fabric and the separation is an illusion. We think of ourselves as separate even though, when we are quiet and we try to find the edge of Awareness, our own mundane awareness, we cannot. There is no edge, there is no end.
Like sunlight pouring through 8 billion prisms that reflect and refract an egoic rainbow of seemingly separate personalities, there is only one sunlight, just as there is only one Consciousness or Awareness that shines through each of us.
Olivia Pendergast - March 2025 - Nairobi, Kenya
Our world has been sweetly misguided as we crave and seek objects, experiences and relationships to cure our hunger for happiness. It is a simple misunderstanding.
We set our sights on an object, (or a relationship or experience), and we go in search of it. We become determined and there is a tension in our body as we tell the story that we have to get it. When we finally have the object we feel a release from the search and we feel what we call "happiness". It seems to be true, deep happiness but what we miss is that it was not the acquisition of the thing that made us experience happiness, ( which only lasts a few days, a few hours, a few moments...) It was the end of the seeking that actually gave us a glimpse into our true nature, into the peace and happiness that we already are. The cessation of seeking, the contentment in the moment, revealed the light that we already are.
That is all that happiness is. The end of seeking.
What we call "happiness" is the same as Awareness and is the only constant in our lives that gives us a sense of continuity from moment to moment. It is underlying and is veiled by the craving, the searching. We already are that light, it just becomes veiled with our thinking, feeling and perceptions that are tinted by dissatisfaction because thought can only occur in time, the past or the future, and time always creates dissatisfaction.
Trying to capture in paint, this insight, the light and knowingness that we already are, is challenging beyond words. In fact, none of these words are true as words make us refer to the past or future and this contentment cannot be in time. It is only now.
So, I paint to try to create a visual of the perfection of what we are, already, without even trying. I am not referring to the physical form that we wear or even the thinking, feeling and experiences of our egos... What is prior to the thoughts? Just Awareness. The Awareness that is peering from behind, or through, the senses. The Awareness that simply notices the taste of a ripe pear, the seeing the soft pink of a rose and the hearing of the sound of the wind in the bamboo.
The iconic halo seen in paintings from centuries before was an attempt to show this holiness/ consciousness/awareness in the elevated members of society. But to someone who notices auras it is evident that everyone, spare none, walks in light and is light. We have just forgotten.
In some of the paintings the figures are metaphorically stitched into their environment, thinking, believing they are separate from their world, but in reality they are borne of the same fabric and the separation is an illusion. We think of ourselves as separate even though, when we are quiet and we try to find the edge of Awareness, our own mundane awareness, we cannot. There is no edge, there is no end.
Like sunlight pouring through 8 billion prisms that reflect and refract an egoic rainbow of seemingly separate personalities, there is only one sunlight, just as there is only one Consciousness or Awareness that shines through each of us.
Olivia Pendergast - March 2025 - Nairobi, Kenya
Olivia Pendergast started painting when she was 4 years old and was raised on a farm in the mountains of North Carolina, USA where she was encouraged by her family to create art and follow in the footsteps of her artist Grandfather and Uncle.
Winning many awards and recognitions in secondary school she went on to attend a 5 year art university, Columbus College of Art and Design, where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts. After graduation she spent 8 years working for various studios as a conceptual designer in the Los Angeles film industry, but eventually realized that fine art and painting was the path she wished to follow. She re-committed to her art and started selling in galleries as a 29 year old and has been painting full- time ever since.
She started traveling and painting in Africa in 2007 and became a resident of Kenya in 2016 where she resides currently in Nairobi.
She has shown in galleries and museums, won awards and been featured in magazines all over the world including: Polo Lifestyle Magazine, Western Art and Architecture, Vermont Studio Center Merit Award and Joseph V. Canzani Award for Excellence.
Winning many awards and recognitions in secondary school she went on to attend a 5 year art university, Columbus College of Art and Design, where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts. After graduation she spent 8 years working for various studios as a conceptual designer in the Los Angeles film industry, but eventually realized that fine art and painting was the path she wished to follow. She re-committed to her art and started selling in galleries as a 29 year old and has been painting full- time ever since.
She started traveling and painting in Africa in 2007 and became a resident of Kenya in 2016 where she resides currently in Nairobi.
She has shown in galleries and museums, won awards and been featured in magazines all over the world including: Polo Lifestyle Magazine, Western Art and Architecture, Vermont Studio Center Merit Award and Joseph V. Canzani Award for Excellence.