The Energy of Love and Hope

The Energy of Love and Hope

Len van Zyl, 2022

Acrylic on stretched canvas

I painted The Energy of Love and Hope one morning when emotion simply overtook thought. It began as a heavy, almost oppressive painting — blacks, Paynes grey, Prussian blue,  — a reflection of where I was after my wife’s passing. But something shifted as I worked. Without planning it, I began reaching for yellow, pink, and light blue, and the painting transformed in front of me.

It felt as though the canvas itself was guiding me from grief toward light. This painting became a turning point — not about forgetting pain, but about recognising that love and hope still live inside it.

This chromatic transformation captures the essence of healing: the movement from despair into light. Angular strokes and fractured geometries vibrate with tension and release, suggesting that love and hope are not static virtues but dynamic energies — forces that break through darkness. The interplay of line, colour, and fragmented form creates a visual rhythm both chaotic and redemptive.

The result is a painting that feels alive with kinetic force — a spontaneous emergence of colour after shadow.

The Energy of Love and Hope now hangs in a prominent space on The Gold Coast of Australia