Study for The King's House

Study for The King's House, Mixed media (acrylic and balsa wood) on linen, 36" x 48", July 2025

My study for a glimpse into the Duat based on a sacred text is my latest work, completed in the early days of July.

It features a saturated matt flat Sahara yellow background and is punctuated with balsa wood accents – an effect I began working with earlier this year in my Marlow Moss paintings. The contrast between the matt and gloss components of the piece allows for a floating effect not readily apparent in photographs and is another effect I began working with in previous works.

The hieroglyphic phrase at the top left of the painting tells the story of this study:

“I have passed by the King’s House,

it is the Abyt mantis that brought you to me”.

The text was brought to my attention and supplied to me by artist, iconographer, writer and friend Ptahmassu Nofra Uaa. It is to be included in a forthcoming work of his The Book Of Utterances. This particular verse is from “The utterance for transforming into any shape one wishes to take[1]”.

My 2020 documentary The Praying Mantis God Of Ancient Egypt discusses the mysterious nature of the Netjer Abyt, including the relatively scant references to Him in the ancient texts. In this text the Netjer is associated with flying creatures (which includes the duck[2]) besides the praying mantis exclusively.

Presented / blessed here by the goddesses Auset (Isis) at top right and NebetHt (Nephthys) bottom left, the original text was written for another king; in my retelling it relates to Dynasty 19 King Seti II, whose statue dominates the piece in a full length and portrait render.

The text does not reveal which king’s house is being passed, but the painting does. The statue featured alongside the text and a close-up portrait of the head below (left) is indeed this king, second of his name in the 19^th Dynasty line, distinguishable from the original Seti (father of Ramesses II) by the praenomen Waser Kheperu Ra Mer Amon[3]. It is the pharaoh’s cartouches that sit centre left.

This statue was a highlight for me at the Pharaoh exhibition last year, and I am fascinated by it. I restored the uraeus on the king’s brow, the divine head of the god Amon that he holds on the shrine offering table, and the glyphs of the Set part of his name that were destroyed in antiquity when that god became a proscribed deity.

The artist admiring the statue which is a focus of this study; Video footage by Kitten

Apart from being fascinated with Abyt as Netjer, I am mesmerised by praying mantises generally. The species I have included bottom right is the Devil’s Flower Mantis (idolomantis diabolica), whose camouflage lures pollinators toward it for prey. It is one of the largest mantis species and possibly the largest that mimics flowers.

The spectacular Devil's Flower Mantis

My appreciation of the designs of American industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes – visited in last year’s The Sorrows Of Setken and again here – finds expression in the curious automobile that is the means by which the palace referred to is passed.

Abyt is driving the vehicle with the gods Wepwawet and Anpu seated behind Him. At the back is the hierophantic passenger who we can assume is the “I” telling the story, gazing out at the viewer along with the Divine Driver.

Other versions of the car featured in the painting from the world of Norman Bel Geddes

The kings house can be seen underneath the seated statue of Seti II, and bears resemblance to the throne hieroglyph of Auset’s name, visible on her head at the top of the painting. I contend that the design aesthetic of architecture in the Duat where the king now resides has undergone a Bel Geddes style revolution. At least I hope it has.

The design by Norman Bel Geddes that the palace in my painting is based on

I have enjoyed experimenting with the Popism colours in this piece, especially in the 3 attendant kau[4] figures down the side of top right.

[1] Adapted from Chapter 76 of the Coming Forth By Day Papyrus of Nu (British Museum EA 10477, sheet 9); in the notes for this utterance, Ptahmassu mentions the help he received in working on this text with Dr. Tamara Siuda, who in turn included the deity in her Complete Encyclopedia Of Ancient Egyptian Deities referencing some of my work and the documentary I made mention of in this article

[2] I made the artistic decision to change the pintail duck determinative in the original supplied me by Ptahmassu with the mantis determinative now evident at the end of the third line

[3] Roughly translated as the powerful transformations of Ra, beloved of Amon.

[4] Kau is the plural ka, a soul anatomy aspect very much a part of Kemetic spiritual understanding and belief