Original artwork description:

'But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.' - Galatians 5:22-23

'Self-Control' is an abstract expressivist painting, rendered in oils in the style of the great artist Zao Wou-Ki. The pink ground of the work symbolises the joy which comes with the discipline of self control and the deconstructed branches reaching across the span of the work represent the endeavour of the human to overcome instant gratification for higher purposes, symbolised in the white foam and blue undertones. There is an organic feel to the work, as if self-control were a widening root system, which it is, in the artist's belief. Self-control is not the same as forbidding oneself's pleasure, indeed pleasure itself can only be fruitful with said overcoming. The branches are reaching for more.

By rendering these spiritual virtues in abstracted form, the viewer is free to interpret the scene as they choose to and to see personal resonances within the form.

Materials used:

Oil on canvas

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