Description
‘Angelica’ by Declan Lee
Artist: Declan Lee
Title: ‘Angelica’
Medium: Pastel on Paper
Dimensions: 16.3” x 12.4”
Framed: Unframed
Year of Creation: 2018
About the Artwork:
“Art appears to come from that strange land in the antipodes of our reality, inhabited by Jungian Archetypes in their infinite forms. It is a form of magic, a kind of alchemy where base materials are transformed into something priceless. Symbols as old as time speak to our subconscious minds about the mechanisms of reality, the deep esoteric Gnosis behind the veil. Angelica was formed out of the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. She may appear to be a visitor from a distant dreamland, but her home is ours as well, painfully close, if only we had the eyes to see.” – Declan Lee
About the Artist:
(Artist Bio)
I was born in 1973 in Southport, England. After moving to Australia I studied classical art at the Adelaide Central School of Art and completed my Bachelor of Design in Illustration at the Underdale campus of the University of South Australia. After an award winning but soulless career as an Illustrator I have focused on establishing myself as an artist.
I work exclusively in pastel for its immediacy and delicate, vibrant colour. The work draws its inspiration from my interests in the esoteric symbolism and archetypal language of the Tarot, Hermeticism, Mythology and religious art that speaks to the viewer on a level that lies beyond language. Those symbols we understand intuitively, deeply rooted in the collective unconscious that find expression in dreams and myth. As they defy contrivance and seem to appear in the mind fully formed, the sketching of ideas is closer to memory than invention. Creating the finished art becomes a process of getting the ego out of the way and allowing the subject to take on a life of its own. For me beauty and truth are synonymous, and the end result should be a picture that allows the “other” to inhabit our world in all its vibrant immediacy.