Original artwork description:

This is an unusual diptych, in egg tempera and gold leaf on two elongated, horizontal oak panels, which references the story of Noah's Ark.

The focal point of the painting is the tiny dove, with an olive branch in its beak, flying through the expanse of gold sky. The painting was made during the coronavirus crisis, when the world seemed very bleak, but we were all trying to keep a tiny glimmer of hope alive inside us.

Here, the stylised wave is drawing back from the red landscape, which seems devoid of life. The dove above has traveled a long way and still has a long journey ahead, but she is carrying a sign of hope, giving this painting a positive message.

The painting was made using pigments hand-ground in egg yolk tempera, on oak panels prepared with gesso. The sky was water-gilded with genuine gold leaf and the rays of the sun were incised into the gesso beneath the gold so that they glisten as the light changes across the panels

The two panels are signed and dated on the back and are ready to hang. The dimensions given include a one centimetre gap between the upper and lower panels.

Materials used:

oak, wood, gesso, bole, gold leaf, pigments, egg yolk, tempera

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