HANDS OF TIME: LOOSE HANDS Original Art Print

The Work

A full circular clock sits centred in this portrait frame, its bezel a warm band of yellow-gold and orange with Roman numerals in deep navy pressed clearly into the surface at every position. The numerals are the most legible in the entire collection, grounded and deliberate against the colour movement surrounding them. A gold winding crown sits at the twelve, giving the clock an almost vintage authority it immediately undercuts with everything happening around it. The face interior opens into sky blue and teal with white light flooding the centre, two dark hands pointing toward the lower right in no particular urgency. Outside the rim, the composition breaks completely: magenta and hot pink surge from the right, cobalt and royal blue push from the left, and fragments of yellow and orange escape upward from the bezel like pieces of the clock deciding to leave.

The Inspiration

Every other piece in this collection argues about time from the inside, fragmenting the face, dissolving the numerals, multiplying the hands. Loose Hands takes a different position. The clock itself is intact, readable, almost traditional. It is the world around it that has let go. That reversal is the point: the mechanism keeps ticking while everything else, the colour, the feeling, the day itself, moves freely in every direction. The impasto strokes outside the rim are looser and more physical than those within it, as though the paint needed room to breathe once it got past the bezel.

What It Carries

There is joy in this piece that the others do not quite reach. The clock is not broken or fragmented or consumed. It simply stopped caring whether anyone is watching it. The numerals are there, the hands are there, and yet nothing about this image creates urgency. The hot pink and cobalt pressing in from either side feel less like pressure and more like celebration. For a collection that spends considerable time examining anxiety around time, Loose Hands is the exhale.

Living With It

The yellow-gold, hot pink, and cobalt palette is warm-dominant with enough cool contrast to work across a wide range of interiors. It reads particularly well in spaces that want energy without aggression: a bedroom that should feel joyful rather than restless, a creative studio, a boutique hotel room where the art is meant to put guests at ease rather than challenge them. The strong circular form anchors the composition, which means it holds its own on large walls without needing symmetry around it. This is the piece in the collection most likely to make someone smile before they have figured out why.

Who It's For

For people who have made peace with not being on time and found that life got considerably better afterward. For designers looking for a portrait piece with full chromatic warmth and a mood that lifts a room without overwhelming it.

A Note on Sizes

This design is available in a range of sizes to suit your space. Available as A0 and A1 poster prints, rolled and shipped. Also available as mounted canvas prints in 16mm, 25mm, 35mm, and 50mm profile thicknesses in both A0 and A1. A large format 1200 x 2000mm option is available on both poster and mounted canvas. Email jacques@jacquesviljoen.co.za for a quote and full details. Please note that proportions shown in previews are for display purposes only. Your final print dimensions will depend on the size you select.

The most popular size across our canvas range is the A0 in a 35mm profile frame.