‘Divine Cosmos Series’ Meditation on a dream
‘Divine Love’, 23.5 ct gold leaf, egg tempera, azurite, true gesso on birch plywood, 60 x 45 cm
Burnishing Divine Cosmos
Let the light of heaven and the richness of creation bring you closer to the glory of the Divine Love
This series is inspired by a dream.
In the dream, I was floating in the universe and surrounded by stars, planets and galaxies. What excited me most was not just the beauty of the universe but the sense that every particle of the universe was made of love.
The dream revealed that all the galaxies and stars were sewn and glued together with Divine Love and Light. Beauty itself is the result of this deep love and transcendent light.
‘Divine Cosmos’ is a meditation on what I experienced in that dream. An experience of beauty, light and pure love. I chose blue to reflect the universe's vastness and gold to reflect divinity. The circle is an emblem of eternity.
BLUE
Blue has been used throughout history to communicate a vision from the heavenly realms. I’ve been experimenting with shading by creating veils of colour on a dark background to show the depth and complexity of creation. The process of using different pigments excites me and it is through this experimentation that I discovered some of my favourites, such as azurite and cobalt.
Azurite, made from the mineral Azure has a unique ability to reflect light. Because of its rarity, it is considered to be very precious and is highly valuable.
GOLD
In this series, I use 23.5 ct gold leaf in an advanced and ancient technique called water gilding. The concentration required when using this precious metal means that I enter a different state of mind so as not to disturb the gold leaf. When I work with gold, I feel that I am touching heaven.
This quote from Saint Sophrony the Athonite reflects some of these elements of the ‘Divine Cosmos’ series.
‘I would look up at the clear blue sky, sometimes staring fixedly in one direction, at others letting my eyes sweep from one edge to the other. When my gaze reached the horizon, I would travel further and mentally embrace our whole planet.
I would peer into the depths trying to penetrate its boundaries; but the longer I kept my attention on the marvellous scene - the more eagerly I studied the heavenly sphere, full of light - the more the mystery fascinated me. And when, by a gift from on High, it was vouchsafed to me to behold the Uncreated Light of Divinity, I saw the blue sky of our planet as a symbol of the radiance of heavenly glory. This radiance is everywhere – filling all the depths of the universe, ever intangible, otherworldly for the created world. ‘