The water in paradise is from my own interpretation and inspiration.
Here at the left is the lettering treatment that we are using consistently in the ten paintings. We are layering a deep red type design over a spattered and textured greenish background. Each of the texts is also layered with a bit of line art from the context of the artwork. This one has a thistle design to represent the desert where God is saving His people.
I am writing this post to explain some of the wonderful moments that have occurred in the creation process. Sometimes you don't know where all the ideas and bits and images flow from. Especially when so much research has gone into the work, and then it starts to come together.
Here is the text; Ezekiel 36:24-28
24 “‘For I will take you
out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back
into your own land. 25
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be
clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your
idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;
I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27
And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be
careful to keep my laws. 28
Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you
will be my people, and I will be your God.
(My notes) Water flowing from Temple/Ezekial, thistles, thorns, Dead sea becomes
the living sea, Christ is the rock, Right side of Christ is heart, pierced,
water flowing from right side of temple, Lot’s wife, water flowing out of right
side of church to dead sea
giving
life, fish, Church on Hilltop,
redemption, Baptism.
I am showing this as a work in progress. It is Very Much not finished yet it is on display in the church narthex right now.
Our process is to draw our design on the canvas with black wash, building up the light and dark tones on the canvas. We next add texture, using sand or a ceramic medium. When that dries we begin to apply a series of glazes of earth tones, building up, adding lights and darks, more texture and more glazes until a rich variety of tones and surface results.
Here at the right I have a partial view of the canvas as I was building up my drawing of a rocky landscape on one side, pouring waters in the center and a garden of Life on the far side. All of these images are the product of much research as I have said. I think it took us longer to come up with sketches in the first design phase than it has to get the canvas covered to this stage.
This is a part of a fresco on the walls of an ancient Roman villa. I used that fig tree as reference, and also added the bird.
I went to a personal experience deep within my memory as I drew the waterfalls and pools of Living Water. A few years ago my family and I made a trek to Guatemala. We saw some amazing sights from Mayan ruins to high mountain tropical rainforest. One of the loveliest memories is of Semuc Champey, a river and waterfall National monument way back in the mountains. It was not easily reached, certainly not in a one day trip, few tourists can make it. The beauty of the clear turquoise limestone pools and the stepped cascades of rushing waterfalls is too much to describe, it can only be
As I was drawing, I realized that this vision of paradise and the peace of the flowing waters with lush foliage all about was the image active in my mind. When bits of the past and present flow together in the act of creativity there is a soul satisfying delight in the work.
The waters are also symbolic of the sacrament of baptism. I had already been thinking of using ideas from famous Baptism of Christ works by Giotto or Verrocchio. This Eastern Orthodox icon image was influential.
A constant in our overall design plan has been to use imagery from Romanesque sculptures, structures, and illuminated manuscripts whenever possible. The Church on the hill from which waters are flowing is a compilation of romanesque buildings, most like these photos of Glastonbury Abbey in England.
