Here come the girls...

It struck me today that I have been exclusively inventing girl-angels - not deliberately, but the entire fleet is female. This is doubly odd when my C of E education steeped me in tales of Michael, Gabriel et al; and I'm pretty sure they weren't even gay - certainly didn't dress it, and that would be an opportunity wasted. One of my defining hymns when thinking of angels starts "The angel Gabriel from heaven came, his wings like drifted snow, his eyes of flame." Awesome imagery and introducing my adolescent mind the idea of angels as scary creatures; powerful and not necessarily as they seem. Certainly not fluffy things sitting on clouds strumming celestial harps and sucking on angel smoothies; I never did get the cherub thing either - as an image I find them borderline scary in a weird, David Lynch way. Definately not Christmas card material, especially the worryingly sexual Cupid pinching Venus's nipple - who painted that? Must look it up, that is one disturbing angel portrayal.
So the male, flaming eyed angel is in William Blake territory for me; cool but not my cup of tea. My idea of angels developed from the ones I 'saw' in a tree in my dream; timid but mischevious creatures that go about their business (whatever that is) right under our noses, invisible to all but the more 'sensitive' among us. These would be the Engel Flusterers, Angelviskare, Angel Whisperers... Having said that, if you Google 'angel whisperers' you come up with some scary-mary people, so I hasten to add that my angels dwell clearly in the realm of narrative fiction and bear no relation to my real feelings for what lives in my hedge; they are sparrows. Just ask the cats. (Actually, bad idea; if the critters could speak they would probably say "Yeah, angels." just to mess with my mind.)
So; we have girl angels of a timid and fun nature and their accompanying 'listener' who I have called Madame Suki Tabere. Suki has appeared in my paintings for a while, I have just repositioned her in the lead role of this particular series; I think she relishes the part!
The joy of the whole enterprise to me is that there is (in my head) a whole world of angels out there all over the world waiting for Suki to discover them in her fishing boat.. this can run as far as the limits of my imagination. The Swedish Forest angels came about through my fascination with various things; henna tatoos, folk art, far eastern art (I know, in Sweden, but there are parallels...) 'green man' imagery from church architecture and old illuminations... that's what I love about creating things like this - the influences are endless and the resulting melting pot is inherantly unique to me and my brain.
The other angel hymn that I love and which makes me sad is 'It came upon a midnight clear', which continues 'that glorious song of old, from angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold.' Now in this circumstance I can deal with the harps and trust my instinct that we are not talking about cherubs here...
Anyway, I am bouncing tonight as someone is interested in buying 'Maja', my first and favourite (to date) Swedish forest angel. I am getting better at letting the pictures go out into the world and would really be pleased if this one went to a good home. Cross those toes and think of angels.
Nearly went away and left without mentioning the new girls at the top of the page; this is Greta (forest angel) and Suki in a contemplative pose and is also an explanation of my ongoing habit of using two suns in the images. I have called it 'Aurora, Hespera' for the two ends of the day (those Roman gods again) which is what is shown by the two suns; the continuum of days, the cycle of life and the connection of us all to the patterns of the earth. Simple when you know.