Sunday Read: From the Perspective of Angels: The Paintings of Frances Featherstone
There is a certain kind of silence that only exists beneath a blanket. A hush that arrives when you decide to retreat to bed. Not to sleep, but to withdraw with a book in hand, knees tucked up, the outside world held at arm’s length. Many of us knew this instinct as children: to disappear beneath the covers with a torch and a story, to press ourselves into the smallest private space we could find, and travel somewhere else entirely. That feeling sits at the heart of From the Perspective of the Angels, the new book bringing together the intimate paintings of Frances Featherstone, with a meditative text by writer Munir Hassan.
The Tale Of Lazy mornings, Oil on Linen, 90 by 80cm. Courtesy of Frances Featherstone.
Featherstone is a painter deeply attuned to inner worlds. In her Groombridge studio, she works in oil, using domestic space as emotional terrain. Her figures are often seen reading, reclining, or lost in reverie. They do not seem lonely, only quietly self-contained in the interiors they inhabit, the soft coverlets the sink into becoming companions, guardians even. The rooms are stitched with pattern and memory: folded quilts, threadbare rugs, velvet cushions softened by years of use. In Featherstone’s hands, textiles become psychological clues of cloth as comfort and fabric as a keeper of time.
Nights In White Satin, Oil on Linen, 90 by 80cm. Courtesy of Frances Featherstone.
Her years as a Senior Designer at the BBC gave her an eye for structure. Many of her paintings are composed from unexpected vantage points, looking down into a room from above. This aerial view compresses space, flattening floors and furniture into something rhythmically patterned. Her work often feels quilt-like in its construction: fragments of colour and texture sewn carefully into a story.
Alongside these images, Munir Hassan writes about the companionship of books and the way a story can become a private room in itself. Rather than solemn reflection, his words celebrate the imaginative freedom of reading: how a page can carry us across time, how a sentence can open a hidden door. He writes about books as places one can step into—pocket universes into which we can fold ourselves whenever life demands a little distance. In this sense, his meditation sits alongside Featherstone’s paintings in an exploration of the idea of interiority not as isolation, but as expansion.
Far Far Away, Oil on Linen, 90 x 80 cm. Courtesy of Frances Featherstone.
Produced with craft and intention by Gomer Press and By The Book Design, the first edition of From the Perspective of the Angels is limited to 750 hand-signed copies. Bound in Wibalin Buckram with section-sewn pages and a ribbon marker, it carries the quiet dignity of something made to last—like a well-loved quilt or a favourite novel, kept close and returned to often.
Featherstone paints what many of us hold dear but rarely articulate: the restorative power of retreat, the soft safety of cloth and room, and the way a book can become a doorway to another life when we need it most.
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Further Information:
From the Perspective of Angels: The Paintings of Frances Featherstone is available to pre-order now.
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Image Credits:
Lead: Pillow Talk, 75 by 60cm, Frances Featherstone. Received a Certificate of Commendation for an exceptional work at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters Exhibition. Honourable Mention Almenara Prize, 2025.
All further images as credited in photo captions.