SKU: p0605

Becky's Day Collection - Awakening by John McClelland. First issue in the series. Reco international 1985. Knowles China Company. Plate size approx 8.5 inches. Suggested Retail $60.00

She awakens with the sun which bathes her bedroom in its golden light. Yawning and stretching, warm and cozy beneath her covers, she is nonetheless ready to begin the day and eager for whatever new adventure and excitement may lie ahead. In -Awakening,- first plate in John McClelland's Becky's Day collection, the award-winning artist once more takes us into a child's enchanted world.

With the profound empathy for his subject which marks the great portrait artists of every age, McClelland creates a picture of childhood which powerfully conveys several emotions simultaneously. First, we experience -Awakening- as a charming, intimate view of a child in the first few moments after she opens her eyes in the morning. Like all children, she is totally natural, innocent, and spontaneous–qualities which immediately endear her to us.

But there is another more subtle and elusive emotion expressed in 'Awakening.- Drawing upon all of his considerable resources, McClelland evokes in the viewer a sense that the world, as suggested by this scene, is brand new, and everything in it is fresh, fascinating, and aglow with wonder–exactly as a child might see it at the beginning of a bright new day.

The mood is immediately set by the golden yellow tonality of the picture, an effect which suggests all the warmth, security, and optimism we associate with strong sunlight. Against this warm radiance McClelland places a cool tint of cobalt blue in the child's
nightshirt, a tone which by contrast enhances the dazzling light filling the room. Both extremes of chromatic temperature are bridged harmoniously by the neutral whites of the pillow case and sheets which pick up echoes of color from adjacent areas.

The composition is deceptively simple and formal: a central figure framed by pictorial details. The major drama of 'Awakening- occurs somewhat above the exact center of the plate, where the child's face, its lifelike flesh-tones even more radiant than the light which illuminates it, draws and captivates the eye. The child's pose is repeated in abstract in the shape of the headboard, which echoes the form of her extended arms, flexed at the elbows, little fists clenched as she stretches. But the strict formality of the picture is relieved by the doll at the child's side, the lace details on one side of the pillowcase, the random butterfly pattern in the wallpaper.

Yet -Awakening- is much more than a technically superb, irresistibly engaging portrait of a child, great as that achievement may be. The child of 'Awakening- is at once a specific child with a unique personality, the embodiment of every child, and the child who lives in all of us. Creating a real child in a magical world, John McClelland gives us a priceless glimpse of a world we may have forgotten.