As The Night Watch Sleeps
Original Artwork
Price: £1,300
Medium: Acrylic Mixed Media on Canvas
Dimensions: 75 × 60 x 4 cm
Certificate of Authenticity included
As The Night Watch Sleeps, Jesus suffers alone and the enemy approaches stealthily under the cloak of darkness. Another surreal painting in my Biblical series. It enters the Garden of Gethsemane at the hour when silence, betrayal and sacrifice converge. Beneath a restless sky, the sheep—Peter, James and John—lie sleeping, held in a heavy, supernatural sleep that prevents them from keeping watch with Jesus as He approaches the anguish and suffering that lie ahead.
Christ is not shown in human form. His presence is felt in the tumultuous clouds in the distance and in His blood-like tears as they meander down into the brook. The dark olives reflect the meaning of the name Gethsemane—“oil press”—and its setting within a garden or olive grove near the Mount of Olives. The Tree of Life is already wounded and scarred in the foreground.
The purse represents the price of Judas’s betrayal, with the blood money spilling out and staining the rose of Sharon beneath it. Beyond the sleeping disciples (sheep), the eye is drawn to the distant unrest in the blood-red clouds.
The painting holds the viewer within the stillness before everything changes: as the night watch sleeps, the betrayer approaches, and Christ alone remains awake to the events about to unfold.
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My Process
I built the painting gradually through numerous layers of washes and translucent glazes, allowing the darkness, colour and light to deepen across the surface while creating atmosphere. I layered the sky and clouds repeatedly, working intuitively until they began to carry the movement and emotional intensity of the approaching storm.
I applied generous amounts of textural medium to build up the tree, giving its trunk, roots and branches a strong physical presence within the landscape. The raised surface creates depth and shadow, making the tree feel almost sculptural. Through this process of layering, texture and reflection, the atmosphere slowly emerged—quiet and dreamlike, yet heavy with the sense that something was drawing near.
Areas of the underlying canvas and initial colour washes remain visible around the sheep and rocks, creating subtle flashes of colour that add depth and vibrancy to the dark background.
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