HANDS OF TIME: THE DIVIDE Original Art Print

The Work

A circular clock face dominates this landscape composition, its deep navy rim anchoring the form against a surrounding field of magenta, red, and purple that presses in from every edge. The face itself is a colour-block interior of teal, yellow, white, and orange, each patch rendered in thick, directional impasto strokes that give the surface real physical weight. Multiple orange hands radiate outward from a central orange hub, pointing in four or five directions simultaneously, as though time has stopped choosing. Roman numerals in warm orange-gold surface through the lower section of the face, partially consumed by the layers above them. The right half of the face catches light in yellow and lime green while the left pulls into teal and shadow, creating a warm-cool conversation across a single surface.

The Inspiration

These works reject the tyranny of linear time. Instead of clocks that demand punctuality, this work shows how we actually experience duration: in waves, bursts, drifts, and sudden moments of clarity. The scattered numerals and multiple hands become visual metaphors for memory itself, fragmented, emotional, and deeply personal. The tension between the desire to control time and the reality that it moves through us in ways we cannot predict or contain drives every colour decision here. Warm orange and yellow fight for the same space as cool teal and navy. Neither wins. That is the point.

What It Carries

The multiple hands are the argument. One clock, one centre, but five different directions, none of them wrong. There is something genuinely freeing in that image, the idea that the same moment can point toward entirely different things depending on who is reading it. The impasto texture reinforces the weight of that idea. These are not light observations. They are layered, pressed in, built up over time. Viewers return to this piece because it validates something they already know: that being pulled in multiple directions is not failure. It is just what being alive feels like.

What It Carries

There is defiance in every stroke. The work refuses to comfort or reassure. Instead it acknowledges that time is chaotic, that schedules are illusions, and that the moments that matter most cannot be measured. Yet there is beauty in that surrender. The colour vibrates with urgency and calm simultaneously, holding both the anxiety of racing minutes and the peace of letting go.

Living With It

The palette spans the full spectrum without tipping into chaos, which makes The Divide more versatile than its intensity suggests. The warm orange and yellow read well against neutral interiors, while the teal and navy give it enough cool weight for darker or more dramatic rooms. It works in modern living spaces, creative studios, and open-plan commercial environments where a single landscape piece is needed to anchor a long wall. In a dining room it becomes a conversation at every meal. In a boardroom, it asks a quiet question about whether anyone in the room actually controls their time.

Who It's For

For people who have stopped pretending that their schedule reflects their life. For interior designers who want a landscape piece with full chromatic range and enough philosophical weight to hold a room on its own.

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.