Jesus

Some Drawings about Mary Magdalene

from the Diary of a Tree Standing On Its Head

Mary anointing the feet of Jesus. I find myself, in my heart seeing Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene as one Mary- incidentally I also see them as Eve.
Walking Man Attending to the Braids of Mary Magdalene Attending to the Feet of Christ

Crucifixion Drawing for Saint Bede’s Box

preliminary drawing of the crucifixion for the painted panels of the Saint Bede’s Box project.

I am leaning heavily on Gruenwald for this drawing of the crucifixion scene. This image will be transferred to a wooden panel for oil painting.

The Great Beast

Exploring the Recurring Theme of the Great Beast and the Prone Man

I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the recurring image of the Lion/Dog-Chimera/Beast standing guard over the prone man in my work from the past 2 1/2 decades. The Beast Himself shows up in many other works, but today I am concerned with His appearance specifically over this lying-down (dead?)man; an obscured self-portrait echo of Hans Holbein’s Dead Christ.

When I first started making these images, I was very uncertain of the beast. Is he good or evil? Is he standing guard to protect the man from being devoured or to devour him himself? As time has gone on plenty of uncertainty remains, yet I feel that the beast transcends the duality of good and evil- I could even venture that he transcends it as goodness.

Pushing a bit harder, I might say the beast is the Angel of the Holy Spirit- if that’s too far, I can retreat to the ground that he is “messenger”.

Entering into the imaginal space of these images, the land of spiritual vision, allows their merger with memory and experience. That’s a leap into what some call the realm of the unseen. As for me, I say it is a seen realm, but with other eyes. They are my memories and experiences.

The man, is he alive or dead or both. He begins to be folded into the Earth in later drawings. And fully inhabits the worship life cycle of growth and decay by the last image. The relationships have matured a little bit perhaps? Time will tell.

Building an Image

The first glazing layers on Thomas Touching the Side of Christ

figure of Nicodemus from Thomas Touching the Side of Christ

After years of working on the underpainting, this autumn has seen the first  color appear on my painting of Christ and Thomas with all of the disciples gathered in a room together.  I am taking a lot of cues for the colors in this painting from Rogier Van Der Weyden’s famous Descent from the Cross in Madrid’s Prado museum.   

Thomas’ robe in process

It is a clunky and halting phase of the process, trying to use the appropriate colors, and the right medium, and the right balance of medium to paint ratio.  I’ve had to rub out hours of work at a time, when I’ve come back the next morning to realize the color isn’t working.  

You can see the uneven blotchiness in Nicodemus robe.  This will be resolved with subsequent glazed layers.  

It is tempting to render the layer to a finished state, even though I know there will be subsequent layers.  It is foolish to carry detail too far just yet, and it is difficult to leave certain problems alone until a more appropriate time.  I caught myself over-rendering the blue of Nicodemus’ robe and had to stop myself midway through.

The darkness of the grayscale layer underneath determines a good part of the value of the glazed colors

Glazing takes advantage of the semi-transparent nature of many pigments when mixed with linseed oil as a binder.  By building up multiple thin layers of paint, it is possible to achieve unique and special color and luminosity in a picture, especially in the correct light. 

various mediums, and their component parts on the pallet.
Thomas’ garment is a mix of Alizarin Crimson, Quinachradone Red, Burnt Sienna, and Cobalt Green.

This painting is a huge learning experience.  They didn’t teach this sort of thing in art school while I was there, so I am having to work through a lot of discovery and failure, even while taking advantage of the many written treatises on painting throughout the centuries.

The relationship of the blue and yellow is particularly nice

Thomas and Jesus

Underpainting Complete!

The grisaille underpainting of Thomas and Jesus, et all is finally to a point where I feel ready to begin applying glazes of color.  After 6 years of work I thought I should take some decent photos of the whole thing before the next phase.  Thank you for watching.

Geometry of the Wounded Savior

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This grisaille (grayscale underpainting) of the interaction of Thomas and Jesus and the gathered disciples and their community, has been slowly developing over the past three years, the drawing took about two years before that.  I feel like the end of this particular phase is finally in sight on the distant horizon.  I look forward to seeing the structure fully unfold and ultimately to the beginning the glazing of colors.

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Saint Thomas Grisaille

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Grisaille underpainting of the remaining disciples of Jesus gathered together in a locked room as Thomas touches the wound in Jesus’ side.

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Small History of Flying Fish

sandstone, guitarflying fish5

…If we set the little paraffin lamp out at night, flying fish were attracted by the light and large and small, shot over the raft…flying fish7

…It sometimes happened that we heard an outburst of strong language from a man on deck when a cold flying fish came unexpectedly, at a good speed, slap into his face…

flying fish6

…They always came at a good pace and snout first, and if they caught one full in the face they made it burn and tingle… flying fish8

…But the unprovoked attack was quickly forgiven by the injured party, for with all its drawbacks, we were in a maritime land of enchantment where delicious fish dishes came hurling through the air…flying fish1

…We used to fry them for breakfast, and wether it was the fish, the cook or our appetites, they reminded us of fried troutlings once we had scraped the scales off…  Thor Heyerdahl, Kon Tiki, 1950

Flying Fish…There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.  But what are they among so many people?…flying fish4…Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all… DSC_0064…Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted… flying fish2…When they were satisfied, he told, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.”

flying fish3…So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets… John 6, 9-13 NRSV

In the dark and unlit ceiling of the Loretta Chapel there is a lonely painting of a chunky fish atop a heavy slab of bread.   At the moment Thor Heyerdahl’s balsa log raft was colliding with a dusty man breaking bread in the grass of Palestine.  The long pilgrim road leading through elder drifts, slabs of rock, mountains of hailstones, unearthly fish with a mouth like a grave.  The sign of Jonah.  Provision comes unlooked for, and fear is weathered away.