Description

Birds are for me a symbol of freedom, of ease and lightness.

In the last months I was going deeper into ancient shamanism and am fascinated from spirit animals. Birds are considered to be a gate to the upper world, an astral realm that shows parallels to heaven in the Christian mythology. That is why I called this painting Gate of heaven.
I was very consciously choosing the birds I feature here, I took birds that have a deeper symbolic and meaning in shamanism.

The middle of the painting is a peacock, that is stretching its feathers forming a gate. In its feathers it carries other birds. If you know my paintings, You maybe discovered already that I really like this motive, taking a being that carries others in itself. For me it symbolises that everything is connected, we are unique beings, but we still carry the whole universe in us.

I chose the peacock as the main bird first because the gate-like opening of the feathers and second because of the symbolic meaning of peacock. Even in the Christianity peacocks are believed to be birds favoured by god and blessed to never decay, even in death. So peacock is the symbol of immortality. In the greek mythology peacock is a bird of gods and messenger of gods. In the Indian mythology peacock embodies perfection and paradise. He tells us that we have infinite possibilities and abilities in our lives.

The painting is made with many layers of high pigmented artist acrylic paint, and 24 karat gold leaf, protected by UV-resistent lack.