Christmas Festival of Angels art exhibition at Magheralin Parish Church 'is bringing viewers to tears'
An exhibition of Christmas angels is having such an impact on visitors that some people are even being reduced to tears, one of the organisers has said.
Magheralin Parish Church is currently holding the Festival of Angels, with at least 2000 people having already passed through its doors.
The 25 life-sized 3D sculptures, created by Northern Irish artists, each reaching up to six feet in height, are crafted from glass, ceramics, metal, wood, willow, fabric and feathers.
The Magheralin church originated the now popular Festival of Christmas trees in 2012 and also held a Wedding Dress Festival in 2015.
Organiser Eileen Cousins, who is also a member of the church, said many people reported the angels exhibition as having been very moving for them.
"People are finding it so poignant," she said. "We have even had some people walk through it and end up in tears at the end. It is a very moving exhibition."
She adds: "The Christmas landscape has always been filled with angels, and our nativity plays and schools are filled with angels.
"So we just really looked at Angels and their role around the Christmas landscape, and then really looked further afield and found over 300 references to them in the Bible.
"So we decided to look at that, and to look at some of the angel encounters in the Bible and how they reflected the heart and the character of God."
It was important for them to engage some of Northern Ireland's most accomplished artists in the exhibition, and also including others who would describe themselves as "enthusiastic amateurs".
"As a result the whole thing is totally breathtaking."
An angel’s head, sculpted by distinguished artist Ross Wilson, is in gold leaf and sits close to the Christmas shepherds’ angel, which is sculpted out of plant material.
Mary's angel, meanwhile, is sculpted with beautiful smocked silk wings and contains over 6,000 nails, to reflect the heart of Mary.
Keith Sheppard from County Armagh, an established kiln fused glass artist, also created 'The Angels Among Us” an amazing five foot 3-D glass angel.
And Elisha’s Angels - four angels complete with their chariot - were made by Boyce Precision Engineering, a local family business with 20 years of engineering expertise in County Armagh.
The church has a long standing artistic partnership with Maghaberry Prison, and on this occasion inmates have created their own breathtaking response to 'The Angel of the North'.
Standing over seven foot high, they used 180,000 passes of a grinder to create a feather effect, with 1,500 pieces of metal.
The angel’s head contains 50 key designs spanning many generations and has over 500 metallic feathers.
She understands the inmates take part in artistic workshops at Maghaberry.
"Our contact that oversees all their work visited the exhibition the other day. He said that for the prisoners themselves this project had such meaning. It was really lovely to have that kind of feedback."
The exhibition is running at Magheralin Parish Church, located between Lurgan and Moira, until Sunday 7 December. It runs Monday-Thursday 6pm-10pm; Friday and Saturday 10am-10pm and Sunday from 2pm-6:30pm