Out of the Angels

“Out of the Angels”, is based on the classical tradition of painting; development of a personal creative vision; and an expression and definition of humanity through pictorial form, whereby a relationship is established between an artist and artefact- the real and ideal.

The paintings use theatrical elements of lighting, costume, drapery and music- conventions of the stage that dramatise the subjects as players set in another time and place; in an ideal space where
the lines between reality and the imagined become blurred, not only through the setting but also through the man-made instruments the musicians are playing and the music being created.

Grace and beauty are the two qualities to which these works aspire.

“A painter possesses grace only as a gift of nature; he himself does not know whether he possesses it, or in what degree, or how he communicates it to his works. It surprises the spectator, who feels its effect without penetrating to its true cause.

Grace is what pleases and wins the heart without passing through the mind. Grace and beauty are two different things; beauty pleases only by the rules and grace pleases without them.

The beautiful is not always graceful. And the graceful is not always beautiful. But grace joined to beauty is the height of perfection.”

– Roger de Piles 1699