Painting Angels 

Some people love the thought of heavenly beings surrounding us, others aren't so enamoured. 

However like them or not, Angels remain a big part of the Christmas story, and as such were one to feature on my cards this year. 

That being said, they are hard to portray, especially if you are not satisfied with the barbie-like template we sometimes get stuck on. This doesn't really flow with the many glimpses we get of angels in the Bible. These two quotes just show the different sides to them -  

Psalm 78:49
He unleashed against them his hot anger, his wrath, indignation and hostility -- a band of destroying angels. 

Psalm 91:11
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 

Click here if you want to read more! 

I prefer my angels big and powerful, but at Christmas the gentler side seems more appropriate, as angels rush around telling humble people of the good news, look after the infants massacred by King Herod, or throng lovingly around the holy crib. 
With this in mind, what better way to remember these roles than by revisiting a classic..... 
This was 'Angel playing the lute', by Giovanni Rossi, a wonderfully talented Italian Renaissance man - weren't they all?! 

It looks a bit like this

So I gave it the ML treatment - with my nifty little Japanese brush pen. 

Then for a more traditional tribute  - get out those paints! Watercolour for a gentle, bright effect, although the original was in oil. 

 

Hard at work - thanks to Missy Van Spyk, my little paparazzi for these

And yes there was some singing......

Then the paparrazzi discovered the selfie....

Some selfies and radio-tunes later we had our finished product. 

Email us if you would like cards of these images ( not the selfies...) 

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