Olivier Messiaen: “Dieu Parmi Nous”

Dieu Parmi Nous (God with us) is the final movement of Messiaen’s 1935 powerful organ work La Nativité du Seigneur. After ten chords of fanfare, the pedals play a tumultuous descending melody as God descends to earth, echoed by the calm and gentleness of the strings.

In collaboration with the JAM on the Marsh Festival 2023, this painting started as a 3 metre x 2 metre work on canvas, first shown in St. Leonard’s Church in Hythe (Kent, UK) while master organist Tom Bell shook the ancient rafters with this impressive piece of music. On the last day of the festival, 2 weeks later, patrons watched while I cut the painting up with shears so that they could bring them home in manageable pieces.