Called "Wilson’s panoramas” these paintings are in acrylic paint on acrylic sheet. Each is a
geometrically true panorama, painted on the inside of a shallow cylinder. When looked at from
outside, the image is reversed; as through a looking glass or a stained glass window.
Designed to be hung as a conversation piece; for example above a dining room table or in an alcove.
The panorama and its brushstrokes are best displayed when hung in a dim room and lit by spotlights
focused on its outside surface.
These panoramas are much more than just the typical scenes or the favourite views one sees in photos and painted landscapes. The idea is to give the viewer the feel of a place; to convey what it’s like to actually be there. Each panorama offers an all-round ontological impression of a particular place or precinct. Often a spot which means something special to the owner. Ontology is the study of existence, being, becoming and reality. It’s about the simple, not-so-simple, thoughts one sometimes gets when alone on the sea-shore or at dawn up a mountain. The Abbe Suger’s theory of light may help to explain the ontological spirit, the memory, of a beloved precinct. Active in the tenth century he was abbot of St Denis, near Paris, he said that light consists of three elements. ‘Lux’ is the everyday daylight we see out in the street. ‘Lumen’ is the holy light of God seen through the stained-glass window of a great cathedral. And ‘Illuminatio’ is the inner light; the flash of recognition that comes when you ‘get it’; when you receive God’s illumination.
I name each panorama to identify the spot it was painted from, also I always add the date it was
finished, and I add a squiggly A in honour of my great hero Vincent Van Gough!