Singularity 🔴 SOLD (Musings)

Oil, acrylic and fluorescent paint on wooden cradled octagon panel, 49x49x3cm. Glows by backlight, see additional images. 
In Singularity, the black jaguar emerges from the threshold between the known and the unknowable. Long revered throughout Central and South American mythology as a guardian of the night, the underworld, and hidden wisdom, the jaguar becomes a symbol of consciousness itself, moving fearlessly through realms that others cannot enter. Here, it is portrayed as a cosmic witness, standing at the edge of creation and dissolution.
Behind the jaguar, a black hole dominates the composition. It represents many things I  this piece, including the threat of mankind to big cats on the decline all over the world. The black hole is often  described as the universe’s ultimate mystery, the singularity represents a point where conventional understanding breaks down; where space, time, matter, and light collapse into something beyond comprehension. Rather than depicting destruction, the black hole becomes a metaphor for transformation and a gateway through which old forms dissolve so that new possibilities may emerge. It echoes moments of profound personal change, when identity, certainty, and familiar structures are surrendered in order to evolve.
Sacred geometry appears in the form of the Seed of Life, an ancient symbol found across cultures and spiritual traditions. Composed of interlocking circles, it represents the underlying order of the universe and the interconnected nature of all existence. Positioned beside the jaguar, it serves as a counterpoint to the black hole: one symbolising divine structure and unity, the other embodying mystery, chaos, and the limits of knowledge. Together they create a visual dialogue between order and the unknown.
Embedded within the lower portion of the work is the all-seeing eye, a recurring symbol in McNaught’s symbolic language. Here it signifies awareness, perception, and the act of witnessing. It reminds us that even when confronted with the vastness of the cosmos and the mysteries we cannot solve, consciousness remains present. The eye becomes an emblem of awakening, the observer looking back at the universe that created it.
The jaguar itself is infused with nebula-like patterns and constellations, blurring the distinction between animal and cosmos. Its body becomes a vessel for the stars, suggesting that the same forces that shaped galaxies also reside within living beings. The creature is not separate from the universe but an expression of it.
Like many of McNaught’s works, Singularity contains a hidden transformation. Under ultraviolet light, fluorescent pigments awaken and the painting begins to glow, revealing an additional luminous dimension concealed within the darkness. This shift mirrors the painting’s central theme: that reality contains layers beyond ordinary perception, and that unseen worlds often exist just beneath the surface of what we think we know.