He Wrapped Me in His Gaze

“He Wrapped Me in His Gaze” Sean Rush’s painting in oil on raw Belgian linen, crowned with a luminous 24k gold-leaf halo. The gold forms an iconic aureole—simultaneously sacred and secular—evoking divine radiance, while connecting to a lineage of religious iconography where gold signals transcendence and halo-like perfection .

The portrait emerges through painterly, gestural brushwork in warm sienna and earth tones, applied with measured confidence. Each brushstroke breathes, allowing the linen ground to soften edges and temper the aura’s brilliance. The sitter’s gaze, intense and amber-lit, is framed by the golden halo—a modern saint suspended between human vulnerability and timeless spectacle.

The contrast of raw linen and opulent gold amplifies the portrait’s emotional hold: gold elevates, linen roots; abstraction meets realism; material meets myth. In this portrait, gaze becomes grace, and gaze becomes offering—a moment illuminated, an intimacy wrapped in light.