Portsmouth Exhibition: "Hope"

Whoever buys this painting will discover that they have got 2 paintings for the price of 1, as I have also painted the back of the wood panel.

I would have loved to show both sides at the same time, but could not figure out how - though a visitor at the private viewing came up with the idea of hanging the painting in front of a mirror at an angle...

Here is what the back of the panel looks like:

I painted the artworks on an online art course called Creative Visionary Program (CVP) during the first lockdown.

I was meditating on two lines of a prayer poem: "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?" (Psalm 8, verses 3 and 4 in the New International Version of the Bible)

Back then I was still working in acrylics - though I was already experimenting with incorporating materials that would otherwise end up in landfill.

There used to be a dump in our area, and it was sobering digging in our garden and finding items that had remained unchanged for decades, as well as bits of disintegrating plastic.

I believe we are called to be good stewards of the earth's resources - yet this often seems a hopeless undertaking. Greed, selfishness and short-sightedness so often get in the way.

Looking up at the night sky expands my horizon and reminds me that there is hope. I see evidence of design rather than random chaos. The moon's waxing and waning follows a set pattern and cycle, regardless of what is happening on earth, whether pandemics, wars or economic downturns.

The longer I look up, the more I see, yet I am aware that no matter how much I see, it is only a tiny part of creation. There is so much that remains beyond our comprehension and reach, at least for now...