Transcendence, spirituality and mysticism have been themes in painting for hundreds of years.

Texas-based painter A. Andrew Gonzalez paints mystical-themed images, often of female faces or figures surrounded by radiant lines of light, and at times overlayed with intricate surface patterns.

The Gallery on his site features images from periods in which his work has evolved through several stages, but always focusing on themes of illumination, revelation or transcendence. The “illumination” is sometimes represented literally by figures whose heads are ablaze with shafts of light or halos.

His latest pieces, as in the example at left, are extraordinary monochromatic works which at first glance look more like photographs of intricate alabaster or marble reliefs than paintings.

Gonzalez works using aribrushed acrylic on ClayBoard or canvas. He pulls the forms out by lifting pigment with an abrasive eraser and then overlays new values with layers of transparent pigment.

Gonzales was very influenced by visionary Austrian Fantastic Realist painter Ernst Fuchs, with whom he had the opportunity to work in Monaco and Austria.

Gonzalez also lists the Pre-Raphaelites and other visionary painters like William Blake, Jean Delville, Robert Venosa and Alex Grey among his influences. He also was influenced in a different way by the dark visions of H. R. Geiger, to which he considers his work an antithesis.

Gonzalez’s site also includes works in progress, sketches and drawings.