'The Angel Amongst Us'

Conceived and executed as a contemporary iconic image, the painting’s imagery is created through a complex interplay of colours, glazes and brush strokes. The choice of both the modest scale and the panoramic format invites a way of seeing associated with the history of landscape painting practice, which is the idea of viewing works from both a distance and close to the picture plane. From a distance, therefore, it is the vibrant expressive character of the sky which is the key note. It is only on closer viewing of the painting that the deliberate centrality of the angel signifies its optical and metaphorical importance in the picture. Returning to the title, ’The Angel Amongst Us’, the central idea is that the painting is a visual metaphor for how we are often not immediately aware of what exists or surrounds us in our lives, its significance and value. By placing a universal symbol, which carries a range of personal and cultural contextual meanings, in a “green” landscape, multiple dialogues are suggested.