Late Afternoon

Late Afternoon

16 x 20 inches, oil on canvas panel, 2015. 

I can’t say I know if I’ll be up to posting regularly.  I wanted to let that last post sink in for a while anyway.  Today I have something less heavy.  This is the completed easel painting derived from the Oak and Hickory sketch I posted a while ago.  I changed the time of day and elaborated detail a lot more.  I had to add some more dappled light, too. 

I am aware that some people might fault the composition.  It would be more conventional to move the trees to the edges as repoussoir (don’t know how to make that plural – I studied Spanish and Italian, not French) and leave the center open for the viewer to walk into.  But I want the leaves to whack you in the face so you notice the detail.  Sometimes people are inclined to dismiss landscapes if they are arranged too typically.  If you want to go over by the fence you may still walk around the trees.  It’s experimental. 

As always, please take notice of the colors, textures, patterns, and details afforded by my realism.  I didn’t exaggerate color that much…at least I don’t think I did.  I enjoyed painting in the little butterfly vignette. 

"For I Will Rise Up Against Them, Saith the Lord"

“For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.

And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,

That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!

The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.

He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.

The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.

Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.

Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?

Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;

That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?

All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.

But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.

Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.

Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.

For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts,

and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD.

I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts.

The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:

That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.

This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.

For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?”

This painting depicts Isaiah 14.  I was very reluctant to undertake this as I do not feel my current skill is worthy (nor shall it ever be for such a subject), but the Lord laid it on my heart to do so now.  Some liberties were taken for the sake of expression and clarity.  I think its kind of realism has that Early Renaissance earnestness and Romantic spirit, even if it lacks the stronger naturalism of the French Academy.  This painting is much more important than any other I have shared with you up to this point.  May it encourage my brother and sister Christians. 

The painting is divided into two halves.  In the upper register, the heavens open and surround Christ with light.  Dramatic clouds billowing from the desolations below dim the light of the moon and render its light the color of blood.  Christ stands in a resplendently glowing cloud; His clothes whiter than any fuller on earth can make them. 

The Lord looks down with utter disgust upon the Adversary who tormented His children night and day for millennia.  His leg is moved forward as He finally stands up in judgement.  His left hand is clenched in rage and His arm is pulled back slightly in a gesture of pity withdrawn:

"For I will rise up against them,
saith the Lord"

I couldn’t resist a little
quote from Church…that
is, the other kind of Church.

“I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.”

Christ forcefully thrusts His right arm downwards in condemnation.  In Michelangelo’s Last Judgement, Christ’s right arm is raised in the moment before the verdict is delivered.  Here the Day of the Lord is come: the judgement is underway.  The arm that stretched out the heavens, that divided the sea, the arm that the plagues followed behind, is now directed at Lucifer. 

"The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.
He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke,
he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted,
and none hindereth."

In the lower register, the Arch-Fiend plummets to his eternal reward in hell.  The force of the Lord’s rebuke has broken his pitchfork and sent him twisting backward, his black cape trailing behind him.  The Fiend’s right wing has caught fire from its proximity to hell beneath.  His right arm, which just moments before was clutching his pitchfork still dripping with the blood of the saints, gestures upwards.  Perhaps he begs for a little sympathy.  Or maybe he’s just trying grab ahold of someone to bring down with him.  The Enemy of our Souls is thrust through with a flaming sword with a Cross-shaped hilt which he vainly tries to pull out.  This is a death blow, as Christ’s Sacrifice permanently redeemed His servants from the clutches of Satan.  The prince of this world is judged.  His fate is sealed.  Now that Old Serpent is rewarded for his ambitions against the Lord and the abuse of His beloved.

“Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”

“He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.”

The Adversary’s face is contorted in a mixture of anger, fear, confusion, and torment.  Forced to finally confront his long-time-coming punishment, he is utterly powerless, helpless, hopeless.  Of course the Devil never goes down without a fight, and he struggles, but it’s not like he can really do anything to escape. 

"...he that killeth with the sword
must be killed with the sword."

His person was modeled on the Augustus of Primaporta, the sculpture of the man who represented Rome, the nation that, like Lucifer, sought to replace God with itself.  It was for the refusal of Rome’s imperial cult and its other idolatries that my brothers and sisters were persecuted.  And upon rehashings of that principle of idolatry throughout history have we continued to be persecuted.  Therefore that statue is a fitting model for the Father of Lies.  The decoration of his armor in the painting is a simplified scene of the Serpent and Eve flanking the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. 

Christ actively rises against the Prince of Darkness.  The verse “For I will rise against them, saith the LORD” is absolutely bloodcurdling.  He who made the heaven and the earth and all the universe with a word, He who makes all the nations look like a drop in the bucket, He who conquered death itself, is personally rising up against them?  Jesus is far more terrifying and powerful than any devil.  Satan and all his allies don’t have a chance in hell. 

“Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.”

So praise Jesus, who has chosen His children over the Devil.  He will not leave us in the teeth of the oppressor indefinitely but He will rise up against him.  That's the thing about Christianity -- we don't raise a finger against anybody but let God fight our battles.  May God be glorified.  God bless!

The Covenant of the Day and of the Night

The Covenant of the Day and of the Night

Oil on paperboard, 6 x 10, December 25, 2014

“Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.  Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.  Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.”

Jeremiah 33: 20-26

Praise God: there are some things mankind just can’t screw up! 

I think this is my best work so far in sentiment.  I’ve done things more realistic, things more detailed, things bigger, things with better technique, things that took longer, but this is the most pleasing to me in feeling.  Artists often perplex others with what they consider their best work: Church left a number of people today scratching their heads because he said he considered Jerusalem to be his best.  So perhaps people will be confused when I say this is my best.  It has all the touching romantic spirit to it that I strive for.  For me the art is in the feeling.

I had the above verses in mind while painting this.  But I know a number of other subjects can be read into this, and each one is powerful.  It can be any of the Prophets of old.  It can be John the Baptist in the wilderness.  It can be the days of the Lord’s tempting.  When I look at it, I recall the Lord’s promises, that there are just some things that are dependent only upon Him.

Salvation is one of those things.  If you acknowledge you are a sinner, repent of your sins and acknowledge you cannot in any way save yourself, and if you believe that Jesus Christ suffered, was crucified, died and was buried, and resurrected to pay for your sins, and you accept Christ as your personal savior, then you have salvation.  All past, present and future sins are forgiven, and your salvation is as eternal as God Himself.  So praise God: there are just some things we cannot screw up!

Oak and Hickory

Oak and Hickory

Oil on paper mounted on panel, 9 x 12, Summer 2015.

I do apologize for the long absence.  I’ve been quite busy in painting and other matters, and this blog will probably be updated somewhat erratically for a while. 

Actually, I’m not sure if that tree on the right was a hickory now.  Whatever.  I think this was the most remarkable plein air work I produced last summer.  Of course, like almost all my plein air works, I thought it was a miserable failure until I no longer had nature in front of me to compare it to.  This was a three hour session on one very hot day in Elon, NC.  I was working with the Ridner medium in my paint.  As the medium contains wax and is very temperature-sensitive, it puddled at first, but somehow it did not seem inclined to run when on the support.  There was only a small war for me to fight with the fire ants this time (ants seem to be drawn to terre verte on my palette for some reason), as I had placed a cup with the residue of a sugary drink a few feet away from me as a decoy.  So I could really focus, with the help of God. 

I got some really lovely impasto and brushwork for the leaves, and some beautiful contrasts of color.  I think it’s gem-like.  The dappled light was an afterthought added in the last fifteen minutes when the position of the sun changed.  I’m somewhat regretful I didn’t put some light on the right tree, too, but it just wasn’t there in life, and I didn’t want to mess with success without a reference.  That black butterfly was around for the full three hours, but I only added it at the end. 

I was so pleased with this oil study, and it does qualify as a study rather than a sketch (this is HRS terminology in case any layman is reading), I made a 16 x 20 studio picture based on it a few months later.  

Some Botanical Studies

The first is an intimate study of I think a sprig of a willow oak(?) and other things in a garden. This was from several years ago when I first started doing plein air work in oils. I was using a prototype sketch box, couldn't find a good medium for my purposes, was in the early days of experimenting with my supports, and was totally at a loss for how to get the effects I wanted in a short period of time. This was on foamboard sealed with acrylic gesso. I had issues with bleeding and therefore tried something else for my next sketch. Keep at things with faith and you will eventually succeed, with the help of God.

The next are some works done a few years later on paperboard sealed with glue.  The glue allows the underlying color of the paper to show through, though it always warped it badly (you can de-warp small papers like these usually with an equivalent coat of glue on the other side, and also with some time under weight if all else fails), and was too absorbent to be pleasant to work upon. 

This one was done on glue sealed bristol paper.  If I recall, this is a rare example of me using pure oil and pigment paint, though I believe I added an oil and wax medium selectively to a few colors that session.  It's too hard to get a brushstroke that doesn't fray at the edges without resin, and also the impasto is a little too sharp, and detailing wet-into-wet is hindered with pure oil and pigment paint.  Hence I believe there were resin mediums in use by the Hudson River School artists (plus we have textual evidence they were as well). 

The last is also on glue-sealed paper.  I was using my first formulation of the Ridner medium, which contained too little wax as I misread the proportions (I think it might have been a little short on resin, too), but it was still very usable.  I wanted to see how close I could come to painting every leaf.  I failed miserably, but it doesn’t look so bad without nature in front of me to compare it to.  It is satisfying for its brushwork, anyway.  There’s a long history of artists applying leaves as raised brushstrokes – the Hudson River School didn’t start that practice.  

Willow and Reeds

Willow and Reeds

Oil on paper mounted on panel, 9 x 12, Summer 2015.

Oh, I remember this one.  Every artist has a number of plein air horror stories, and this is one of them.  I was happy when I found a bench to work on angled towards a picturesque view.  I got my palette set, strapped my sketch box to my lap, did my drawing, and began working.  About fifteen minutes in, one of those green flies (the type the size of a house fly) started biting me on my ankles.  So I shook it off and continue.  Then I felt a few more bites and saw more flies.  The minor annoyance started to become very unpleasant.  I shook them off, and did my best to swat them, with my box on my lap making it difficult, but there were too many to stop all of them.  At that point the bites started becoming more painful, like an acute, but lasting stab, not unlike the feeling of having a needle driven into the flesh.  While the sketch was half done, the relentless biting became unbearable, so I unstrapped my box to see if I could kill the flies while unencumbered.  Upon looking down, I saw a small swarm of flies, and several streams of blood running down my ankles -- I did not know they could do that!  When you have shed blood for your art, it is time stop for the day.  I promptly packed up and ran back to the car with the plague following me.  The rest of the work was completed in the studio, and I think it came out good nonetheless.  I got a good contrast of brushstrokes and textures, along with a satisfying chiaroscuro.  And most importantly, it's naturalistic.

Someday I’ll put up a post of my boxes and explain the merits of that technology.  I’ll also tell you about HRS sketch boxes, and I think I have discovered things, by the grace of God, that shall surprise you.  

A Little More Sorrow and Reproductions

I managed to get a good scan of my picture Sorrow.  After I shared that one on Instagram, I got the idea for this post.  Below left is from the scanner and it approximates how the picture looks indoors in artificial light.  Below right is the image I posted before taken outdoors with a camera that approximates how it looks outdoors in natural light.  And you do observe a change in the artwork throughout the day indoors inasmuch as the changing light outside affects the light inside.  Both reproductions are accurate depending on the lighting.

Indoors the colors are darker and deeper.  Note the cherry red of the clouds.   But you lose some of the subtleties of detail and color, as well as the luminous glow of the glazes.  (Because this is a scanner image, you can also make out a few more blemishes like underdrawing showing through and a few specks of dust -- and these are things common to art history.  It is often you see underdrawings remaining visible in museum paintings (Pre-Raphaelite works are notorious for this), and dust pops up in a masterwork every now and then (I could swear I saw dust in Church's Twilight Short Arbiter 'Twixt Day and Night in person at the Newark Museum)).

The outdoor image captures the glow of the glazes making everything brighter, with subtle details of chiaroscuro and gradations being rendered more visible.  Note how the blueness of the darks in the clouds is brought out.  But the brightness shifts the color, which makes more of the color under the glazes more visible, which is not necessarily bad.  (And you have to contend with glare and perspective issues in camera reproductions, though you often get a better understanding of the brushwork).So now you are thinking I'm just bad at reproducing my artwork.  I have a reason for showing you this!  Artworks produced with traditional techniques vary in appearance in different lighting throughout the day, and when viewed from different vantage points.  This is why you can look up the same museum masterwork on image sharing websites and find a thousand different reproductions of the same work.  You can look at the same artwork professionally photographed in different art history books, and unless both books used the same photograph you will see two different reproductions.  

Artworks painted with layers and glazes and other traditional techniques indeed change in appearance with the circumstances of viewing.  They are not static.  And I'm not the only artist to realize this.  Some people do not trouble themselves with anything beyond composition in art -- nothing matters to them but the image itself, and thus they are happy to sacrifice technique and other subtleties of art-making for the sake of getting a good image that can easily be reproduced.  Hence they switch from oils to easier media to wield, or they give up on making physical art and go digital.  Other people just avoid traditional glazing and do everything direct with overbearing mixes containing lots of opaque white, which makes things photograph better.  And all that's fine for those artists who are into that, and they are not any the lesser for it.  Such methods are certainly more expedient for the purposes of illustration.  

But I'm not that type of artist.  I want my paintings to have more charm and depth than just basic image.  I make an effort to give my paintings better qualities than your typical inspirational poster wall decoration.  My art's higher than that.  I endeavor to produce an artwork that cannot be taken-in entirely with a single glance.  Rather I seek to produce art that shall invite examination for years to come.  And I daresay this what the masters sought before me.  Of course, circumstances don't always permit us to live up to our standards all the time.  But I think I've lived up to mine this time, at least.