The work “Angel in the Forest’ took me over 5 years to complete. It began as a simple idea to do a landscape of the forest in my backyard on the Scarborough Bluffs that overlook Lake Ontario. You get the most incredible fog that rolls up through the ravine off the lake that I wanted to capture in a very large painting. The underpainting or sketch is actually of the forest and trees. Sometime during the process of applying the many layers of paint I had the idea to put an angel in to the forest. I am not too sure why. It just happened. For months and years I continued to add layers but I could never quite finish the painting. Something was missing, again I wasn’t too sure what. In the fall of 2007 I experienced two significant events, the loss as a candidate in the provincial election, followed shortly after by the breakdown of my 22 year marriage. I entered a very dark and foreboding place. A place where “the undergrowth was choking me and the trees around were bent with menace”. When I emerged from that place in amongst the trees I knew I was ready to finish the painting. In early July of 2008 I entered my studio and in less then a week the “Angel in the Forest” was complete.
My Minister and good friend who was witness to the entire process wrote the following that best describes the painting,
The painting “Angel in the Forest” has been both a work and a life in progress. I recall seeing her in her early days sitting alone and vulnerable on the new canvas. Her classical features spoke of timeless beauty. Little did I know she would become lost in layers of life, colour upon colour, running, flowing, changing, blending, clashing. Little did the artist know it either.
Now she stands complete, as all angels do, a little hidden, a bit obscure, and always mysterious. I am deeply pleased to know she is there among the challenges of wilderness. I have experienced her on occasion when the undergrowth was choking me and the trees around were bent with menace.
It is said that true symbols choose us. The theme of angels emerged in cultures when cosmic contact seemed too far away and its expressions unhelpful. Yet, as living beings we all carry stories of new hopes, miraculous encounters, and changes of heart. These are our deep daily bread.
Symbols still choose us, so, when we see the Angel in the forest we recognize in it, ourselves, our situation and the nearness of our rescue. The colours are right, the constriction certainly feels real, and the lady herself is as full of grace and truth as any dear friend we might meet in the clearing of our dearest longings.
The Rev. Dr. Malcolm Sinclair
http://www.garycrawford.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/craw_aug15_1l_v2_9w.jpg