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fallen angels: hope and despair/ a study in paint

Fine Arts, Painting, Visual Arts

outcast (detail)/ oil and enamelled ink on canvas/ 60" x 36"
FALLEN ANGELS
the problem of despair
the prevalence of hope
a study in paint
For me, the act of painting is an immersion in the process of creation, and is an intuitive and evolutionary process. As a painting progresses, the work reveals itself, both in the physical and metaphysical sense, such that a spiritual idea will imbibe the work. This concept provides a framework for comprehending an, essentially, abstract work. For example, the understanding of the painting, Fallen Angel, indeed of all of the paintings in the Fallen Angels Series, is elaborated by two accompanying passages from Paradise Lost, which each address the problem of despair:

Me miserable! Which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath, and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is Hell;
Myself am Hell.
(Satan Speaks in Paradise Lost, IV, 72-74)

Degraded, to what wretched state reserved!
Better end here unborn...
But is there no other way, besides
These painful passages.
(Adam speaks in Paradise Lost, XI, 501, 527)

Furthermore, the painting is my personal tribute to Van Gogh, elicited as a deep response after having seen his work, placed within the milieu of his own contemporaries, at the Dallas Museum of Art in the exhibition, Sheaves of Wheat. Thus, imagination, memory, art history, and personal history all combine to enrich the context from which the work can be approached.
The first angel is born, in black indigo oil. All of the angels begin this way. Using very vigorous line work to set the "bones" of the painting, colour is added once the skeleton of the angel being born has dried.
Fallen Angel completed (oil on canvas/ 60' x 36'). Looking carefully, one can see that the wings are reminiscent of sheaves of wheat, an important subject matter frequently depicted in Van Gogh's time. At the top of the canvas, a flock of birds follow the angel down as he falls forever from his heavenly home.
(Outcast / oil and enamelled ink on canvas/ 60' x 36'/ STOLEN)
(Pale Fire / oil, copper leaf, and enamelled ink on canvas / 60' x 36'). In this painting, the angel's wings surround a tall ship, a recurring theme in my work.
(Crossroads / oil on canvas / 60' x 30' ) Again in this painting, the angel's wings flank, and in fact form, the mast and sails of the tall ship. In the distance, another tall ship is sailing forth.
(Caged Beauty / oil on canvas / 60' x 36' ) This painting is one of the few female angels, and is the most sensual of the angels. She sits with her legs folded to one side, arms spread out. Behind her one can almost discern the image of her consort.
(Unleashed / oil and wax on canvas / 60' x 30') Wildly colourful, this painting is clear and clean in it's execution of line work, preserving the pristine white edges of the canvas.
(Vanquished/ oil, gold and copper leaf on canvas / 60' x 40'). As suggested by it's name, this painting has hot, violent imagery: a ship blazing and on fire as it is wrecked by the railing storm.