End of Days

As my paintings use realist imagery, I am often asked what they mean.

I am painting the Landscape of Dreams, so I often put in imagery that feels right without being able to fully articulate why.

Thus, when someone looking at a painting suggests meaning to an element, I, after some thought may well agree with them, even if that wasn’t consciously in my mind when I painted it.

I will, however, attempt to put some interpretation to this work “End of Days”.  (painted in 2012.)

This is my first attempt at analysing one of my own paintings, so we’ll just have to see how it goes...

This is a fairly apocalyptic image.

Set against a sunset, The headland has been battered and eroded by the sea; the cathedral, a work of great art, skill and faith, is on fire;  the space shuttle rises from the north transept and a Divine arm reaches down from the heavens.

For me this has a lot to do with the contradictory nature of Man.

We create, but we destroy; we despair , but we also have faith.

For me, the arm shows Divine intervention and the hope of faith and  the shuttle is both a destructive force and  a symbol of hope, rising from destruction towards a future home.

The one force that is unstoppable, however, is nature.  The sea has eaten away at the land the cathedral is built on until it is perched on the end of a narrow headland. Even if it was not being destroyed by fire, this building would soon fall .

Thus I conclude that this is more of a nightmare of what might happen ,or Man might cause to happen .

Yet  there is always hope. By the wit of God or Man we may escape the destruction.

Until next time

Adieu