Do I look like I keep the company of angels? Original painting by Chris Shopland acrylic and iridescent acrylic on 23.8 x 30 cm canvas
“Do I Look Like I Walk With Angels?” – Acrylic on Canvas
This piece explores the tension between how we are seen and who we truly are beneath the surface. The portrait is layered with bold, restless strokes—fragments of emotion, memory, and the quiet inner battles that rarely show on the outside. The face appears both exposed and obscured, as if constructed from shifting perceptions rather than a single truth………
Throughout the composition, white doves gather around the figure. They may look serene at first glance, but here they represent something more complex: the assumptions people make, the innocence projected onto us, and the quiet expectations carried by appearance alone.
Growing up, others often misread my silence, mistaking my stillness for offence or purity—like when a joke fell flat and they assumed I “didn’t get it.” and was offended, I understood; it simply wasn’t funny. That disconnect—between the inner self and the version others imagine—is embedded in every textured layer of this work.
The doves become both guardians and burdens, symbols of the ideals people assign without ever seeing the turmoil underneath. This painting asks a simple question:
How much do we ever really see of one another—beyond the surface, beyond the doves?
Do I look like I keep the company of angels? Original painting by Chris Shopland acrylic and iridescent acrylic on 23.8 x 30 cm canvas
“Do I Look Like I Walk With Angels?” – Acrylic on Canvas
This piece explores the tension between how we are seen and who we truly are beneath the surface. The portrait is layered with bold, restless strokes—fragments of emotion, memory, and the quiet inner battles that rarely show on the outside. The face appears both exposed and obscured, as if constructed from shifting perceptions rather than a single truth………
Throughout the composition, white doves gather around the figure. They may look serene at first glance, but here they represent something more complex: the assumptions people make, the innocence projected onto us, and the quiet expectations carried by appearance alone.
Growing up, others often misread my silence, mistaking my stillness for offence or purity—like when a joke fell flat and they assumed I “didn’t get it.” and was offended, I understood; it simply wasn’t funny. That disconnect—between the inner self and the version others imagine—is embedded in every textured layer of this work.
The doves become both guardians and burdens, symbols of the ideals people assign without ever seeing the turmoil underneath. This painting asks a simple question:
How much do we ever really see of one another—beyond the surface, beyond the doves?
