Choir of Angels


 Choir of Angels

Traditionally, paintings and sculpture have depicted angels with bird-like wings emerging from their shoulder blades, lacking the torsral musculature that would be necessary for actual flight.  This representation is symbolic, not realistic.

Many of my Christmas paintings and Christmas cards have depicted angels.  I have used a range of angelic representations, frequently departing from the traditional and moving on in symbolism.

A traditional representation is Gabriel in this painting Virgin Annunciate.  The Holy Spirit is represented by a dove hovering between Gabriel's wings.

 
 
Also in a traditional representation, is the angel from my painting Annuciato ut Pastores dominating the scene.
 
 
 

In my painting For Unto Us celebrating George Frideric Handel's oratorio, Messiah, small heavenly  angels join the terrestrial musicians to frame the composer/conductor.

 

 The wings on this angel from a block-printed 1995 Christmas card are a bit more stylized.
 

In my panel painting Gloria the angelic wings are reduced to halo components,

 

In my Dream of St Joseph the angelic wings are simply symbolic streaks.

 

An angel from a 1970s screen printed Christmas card required no wings at all.


 For a group of small mismatched frames I painted a set of Christmas miniature paintings, of the Shepherds, the Holy Family, and the Magi.  The angels appearing in this small scale painting above the shepherds are merely suggestive. 


 
 
In Hildegarde's Vision  amorphous angels occupy her aura.





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