Blessed are the Persecuted 2012 Oil on Linen 750 x 1050mm $4500
A craggy ridge line leads to this place of hardship with real estate to die for, literally. With little room to grow trees are forced into a tyranny of survival. Resources are scare and these are fought over. These are two rough barked angophoras. Sometimes known as the custard apple for its yellow toned trunk. It finds its ideal habitiat on rocky infertile soils on the rock ledges around the Sydney Basin.
The persecution talked about in the Beatitude is that suffered because of righteousness. The metaphor holds for those bullied in a playground as much as those persecuted because they take a stand against political oppression. Human treatment of one person to another has always had a power relationship. The actions of the powerful, the stronger stand over the week and disadvantaged.
Dance of two
These two trees undertake a dangerous dance of life and death. At first glance one tree clearly dominates the other but metaphorically it too is being persecuted. One stands above the other curved over projecting the weak and injured. In the end both trees will not survive in this world. They both bare the scares of the struggle. The kingdom of this world is right there for them to see, beautiful and to be treasured. But the struggle blinds all and eventually will overcome these trees. Their blessing is more likely to come from the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom on the other side of death.
This painting belongs to the Pas De Deux (Dance of two) series. It is one of four works in the beatitude series painted on the T3 track out of Mountain Lagoon, NSW.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Matt 5:10