oil on cradled panel, 2019, 40x30cm
The title is inspired by the story of the poet Petrarch, who summited a mountain and opened St Augustine’s Confessions to a page that made him ashamed to have been “admiring earthly things…nothing is wonderful but the soul”. Augustine told that sinners look to nature for happiness when really we should be looking higher, to god. The history of nature painting in the west is tied to Christianity and the celebration of the human soul.
This painting has featured in some virtual shows and been shared as part of the Contemporary British Painters ‘Painting of the Day’ project.
These ‘assemblage’ paintings are designed from recurring themes and imagery that are intuitively collected and assembled, and circle around key themes.
Thaïs Lenkiewicz 