This work is titled “The Day The Sun Fell”. It depicts a crowd of centipedes reaching their spindly legs to an angel who flies, embracing the sun. Her dress billows and wings spread as she ascends above without them, despite their desperation to cling onto her. The sun is exploding on that day, and despite their worship, the insects, just like us, are left behind in the sun’s red beams. It refers to how idealising and glorifying figures, no matter how superior we think they are to us, will never do any good for us.
I used soft colours for the angels and harsher darker colours for the centipedes to show how there is a gap between them, and they are being blocked from the last glimpse of sunlight from a fire ball of their demise.
I used acrylics as I feel familiar with the medium, and with its vibrant colours I am able to get a popping out from the canvas effect I wanted, to give viewers a surreal and wondrous experience. This sentiment and method was inspired by Renaissance, Post-Impressionist and Surrealist paintings, mainly paintings from Michelangelo, Vincent Van Gogh and Salvardor Dali.

Acrylic on canvas

59.4cm x 84.1cm

Gold Award