Forest Portal, 2021

Forest Portal is a large panoramic oil painting on canvas of a glowing autumn forest clearing with a red deer stag and golden light through trees behind him. The painting brings the viewer out from a dark autumn forest and into a vibrant glowing clearing at the edge of the forest. It looks like a stage set where something is about to happen. A golden stag can be seen waiting between the trees. A portal is an exit or entrance to some other place. I sometimes get anxious in case I accidentally walk off my own time line into another when I walk in woodland such as this. I like this idea as the patches of woodland in England, especially, do have their own distinct atmospheres one to the next. This forest is like a large glowing cathedral where magic happens. The stag is a symbol of spiritual guidance common to many cultures. I made the painting with lots of overlapping layers of transparent colour and these layers reflect different colours when seen from different angles. It is dark but it is also rainbow coloured in a similar way to the reflective wings of a raven. The dark edges are mostly deep purple, blues and green. It is 36x60x2 inches on deep edge canvas, dark edges, no frame needed, ready to hang. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FI6AwdBMjM