Chagall White Crucifixion Revisited: "Father Forgive "

How did I ever come to paint this ? ...so different from anything I have painted recently...

When I  heard about the Firstsite Open Exhibition    http://www.firstsite.uk.net/    
I thought "Oh yes...I have several paintings ready to go into my October solo exhibition: I could easily chose from one of those..."

But then I read through the Guidelines and thought again...
Yes, I could easily put in one of my recent sunsets or...   

BUT the exhibition organisers  were clearly hoping for a few paintings that might get people talking and interacting with the exhibition...Mmmm... could I possibly rise to the challenge ?

• ...first idea:  "Climate Change...thats the biggest issue at the moment, with the important talks coming up in December..."   

... but somehow all I could think about was this poster advertising "Baked Alaska" the touring Climate-Change play:    http://ridinglights.org/baked-alaska/   

 or my window in Climate Change  http://janetdriver.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Climate%20change   

amazing how  "been there, done that " blocked my thinking...plus the fact there was hardly time to produce an  oil painting that would be dry before the handing in dates...

...I left it... got on with life...turned my back on the whole idea...

...went for a walk by the sea...

• ... walking along by the sea at Brightlingsea, watching the small ferry full of people as it fought the current, going so slowly against the incoming tide, making its way towards Mersea... 

...can you see the visual link already?....

....a flashback to news pictures of refugees in overcrowded small boats, some floundering & overturning... others pouring into Greek islands...

"how would we react if they were landing here...?"

By the time I reached home my mind's eye had raced on, remembering Chagall's White Crucifixion.

Hadn't he painted a whole series of incidents about early holocaust victims all around the Crucified Christ ?  

Chagall: White Crucifixion

 ...and suddenly I could see the link:  70 / 75 years on ...unimaginable horror & violence escalating once more around the world

...images poured into my mind, tumbling after one another... I knew what I had to paint...

...could I actually complete it in time ?  

 Well, maybe...if I didn't spend too long planning it...if I could let go and follow my intuitions... 


                                                                                                                    ...to be continued....



added January 2016:   Just read this article about the Lampedusa Cross & the carpenter who decided to make small crosses out of migrant boats which broke apart whilst carrying migrants...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35360682