HIGHGATE MIST (2010) by Michael Whelan Acrylic - 10" x 8" Looking for sketching subjects, I started to seek out sculptures of angels and enjoyed using them as models. Not knowing why they particularly attracted me, I guess you could say I went ahead...
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HIGHGATE MIST (2010) by Michael Whelan

Acrylic - 10" x 8"

Looking for sketching subjects, I started to seek out sculptures of angels and enjoyed using them as models. Not knowing why they particularly attracted me, I guess you could say I went ahead and painted them on faith, knowing that the deeper meaning would become more apparent to me as time went on.

(via theartofmichaelwhelan)

Source: michaelwhelan.com

PATHLESS (1999) by Michael Whelan Acrylic on Panel - 18" x 24" In preparing works for a one-man show, I was pressuring myself to have every painting be about a “grand theme” and I was searching around for a subject. I was feeling almost as stressed...
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PATHLESS (1999) by Michael Whelan

Acrylic on Panel - 18" x 24"

In preparing works for a one-man show, I was pressuring myself to have every painting be about a “grand theme” and I was searching around for a subject. I was feeling almost as stressed as if I had a deadline for an illustration project. This didn’t make any sense and I finally had to stop and realize that it was OK to give myself the freedom to just paint something beautiful. If I just relax and trust the process, the themes emerge and the art takes care of itself.

(via theartofmichaelwhelan)

Source: michaelwhelan.com

THE DREAMING LANDS (2002) by Michael Whelan

Oil on Canvas - 20" X 30"

This painting is one of several works derived from my experiences at MSKCC in 2000.

That year I also read a couple of books which mentioned a feeling I have experienced at night during camping trips: lying in some huge quiet wilderness area, and imagining the overwhelming weight of the Earth at my back, as if I was actually lying in space and pressing against my back was the huge sphere of the earth with all its wonder, order, chaos and complexity. At the same time I also had a sense of being a part of it all, of sinking into and being one with the foundation of stone and rock which supports us all, the whole planet and everything on it.

This feeling came to me again while I was recovering in the hospital, with the sense that all the buildings and man-made constructs were transparent as mist, that the “bones of the land” (the rock and stone under everything) were the only things that were real and solid and supporting me.

(via theartofmichaelwhelan)

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