Madonna Alkahest

Madonna Alkahest

from £3,200.00

Oil on Canvas (2025), 50 × 60cm

This oil painting draws on Renaissance & alchemical iconography, through a contemporary visual language. An eclipsed sky, boundaries collapse between body and atmosphere, placing the figures in a state of dissolution and transformation. Drapery and anatomy destabilise like atoms flying apart - forms shifting beyond fixed structure, but held within a unified composition.

The ultramarine blue colour operates as a central force within this work, historically associated with the sacred, it does so here but removed from a religious context. Here, it articulates the grandeur of both collapse and renewal.

Through controlled layering and glazing, the painting tests how inherited visual languages can be reworked into a cohesive, living surface.

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My paintings are created using artist-grade, high pigment oil paints on carefully prepared cotton or linen canvas, chosen for their durability, surface quality, and ability to hold subtle layers of colour over time. Each canvas is triple-primed to create a stable, archival surface that allows for both precision and luminosity within the paint.

The works are built slowly through layered glazing techniques inspired by Renaissance painting methods. Thin translucent layers of oil colour are applied over time to create depth, atmosphere, and shifts in light that cannot be achieved through direct painting alone. This process allows light to travel through the paint surface and reflect back outward, giving the work its characteristic glow and sense of inner luminosity.

I use a combination of controlled modelling, sfumato, and transparent colour layering to create delicate tonal transitions, rich shadows, and heightened colour vibration while retaining clarity of form and detail. The final surface is carefully varnished once fully cured, enriching colour depth, unifying the finish, and providing long-term protection for the painting.

Every material choice is made with permanence, visual depth, and collector longevity in mind, allowing the paintings to function not only as images, but as crafted objects designed to endure across time.