Peacocking by Teddy Hansen

Why getting lost at sea isn’t too bad:

A love story of a man who gets lost at sea and ends up on a desert island inhabited by nothing but peacocks. But after befriending the birds, he uses their mating method of reflecting light off their wings to signal to a boat out at sea.

A peacock knows how to angle his wings perfectly at 45 degrees to the sun, thereby reflecting as much light as possible towards the female bird on his mind. On the top left corner, you see the sun shining down on the bird, and on the top right are the reflections which are at a perfect 45-degree angle from the centre of the bird.

Similar to cave drawings that might be found on a desert island, on the peacock’s back is a scene of the man followed by a peacock he is training and a boat in the distance.

An owl flies past the peacock’s neck and a cat below the right wing, representing the love story of the owl and the pussycat sailing off in their pea(cock) green boat.

At the bottom, you see the man and woman sailing off into the sunset in love.

Mixed media on canvas.

157H x 127W cm

2025