760x910mm
Oil on canvas
Unframed
Unavailable – in a private collection
“Rejoice in the hope of glory no’n’” is an open-ended series that I am painting over a number of years – this is the 1st painting in the series and is now part of a private collection. Every so often I come across a scene that depicts the essence of hope. Limbs and extremities are often left unfinished or fuse with negative spaces around the figures. The boundary between glory and the figures becomes unclear and undefined; where does glory start and where does reality end or begin. Or is it not rather a fusion of the two creating a new reality; hope should not be limited to only its embrace of the heart – it has the ability to bring a newness to lives in a broken world.
The expression on the face of the young dancing girl reflects her total immersion in the dance. She’s lost to her physical reality – the negative space around her, hinting of her reality, is part of yet not really a part of her. The reality of the poor environment in which she lives is lost to her joy – surely that is what hope brings to our lives.