In the Christian tradition of canonical hours, or prayers at fixed times, Compline is the final prayer of the day. The name comes from the Latin completorium, meaning something that fills up or completes, just as the prayer concludes the day. According to the Rule of St Benedict, written around 530 CE, Psalm 91 is one of the psalms to be read or sung for this nighttime liturgy. The choice echoes similar uses in Jewish tradition, where the psalm is recited at Ma’ariv on motza’ei Shabbat, the service at the close of Shabbat, or as a prayer before sleeping. Thus, for well over a thousand years, as darkness descended, Jews and Christians have surrendered themselves to God’s care with the psalmist’s words: ‘you will not fear the terror of the night’.

In both appearance and process, Julia Hendrickson’s watercolour painting echoes the psalm’s use as a daily prayer for protection in our vulnerable state of sleep. Rest in the Shadow evokes the mystery of a night sky reflected in water. Dark pools seem to shift and shudder as delicate flashes of light shimmer on the surface.

With her paintbrush loaded with deep blue grey pigment, Hendrickson begins the painting by repeatedly writing a phrase from verse 1—‘rest in the shadow’—in large, looping strokes. Like liturgical chanting night after night, Hendrickson layers the text until it becomes unreadable. The paint eventually fills the entire sheet of paper. But then, Hendrickson scatters coarse salt crystals across the inky expanse. The salt absorbs the watery paint, creating tiny, blooming starbursts that grow like swirling galaxies. The darkness that conceals terrors and threats is inexorably pierced by light (Psalm 139:12 and John 1:5).