A detail from The Resonance of Compassion at Truro Cathedral © Nicholas Charles Williams
Cornish figurative painter Nicholas Charles Williams is continuing the revival of the once symbiotic relationship between art and the church with a new painting at Truro Cathedral.
The Resonance of Compassion is a monumental oil which examines the demise of compassion in society while making symbolic references to the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Very much an allegorical piece, it was made during months of work at his studio, a former lifeboat station in Newquay, and features four figures involved in two disparate acts.
The painting is the second piece by Williams to be exhibited in a Cathedral. His triptych, Desideratum, was displayed in Liverpool Cathedral for the city’s Capital of Culture celebration in 2008.
An accompanying four-minute film documenting the making of the work, featuring local people from north Cornwall posing as models, can be seen at www.nicholascharleswilliams.co.uk and below.
