New Life from the ashes?

I cannot remember how long ago I began a painting expressing my anger about all the violence in Syria and then added more angry daubs when further outrages happened in Nigeria, Pakistan, Iraq, Gaza, Sri Lanka, & Paris. Its a real mess. And yet one day when I turned it upside down I was surprised to discover recognizable shapes emerging, and decided to enhance the outlines a little to see what would happen...resulting in an abstract group of faces in one corner.
This has been a prayer painting with much anger and deep sadness. A cry of 'Where on earth is God in all this ?

And then I think of all the really positive things people have been doing: those who have been involved in giving aid or working with refugees despite the risks. Its too easy to be overwhelmed and depressed by all the evil, and not notice the love around. What about Medicins sans frontiers working in war torn areas, and all those who have gone to West Africa to work among Ebola victims ?

The ground outside my studio was totally waterlogged; a dark mess of decaying leaves and ashes. But then suddenly, with a little sunshine, a few thin green shoots have appeared, topped with the first snowdrops

a reminder to notice all the little signs of new life and hope.

welcome to 2015

another unfinished painting... portraying the flip-side of last night's unfinished picture of someone running towards a firmly locked door
  Here I imagine that door being opened from within
 A heavy wooden door, firmly locked by a crossbeam, taking quite an effort to open.
But as it gradually opens, even just a crack, the brilliant morning light floods in
 to dispel the darkness.
The beginning of something new...

New Years Eve

Running towards the New Year ?

this is actually a half finished painting

towards the end of a series of paintings

on Mary of Magdala...

come back later in 2015 to see the finished picture !

Short Christmas Meditation

Madonna & Child,  no 5.

 from:   http://www.taize.fr/en_article75.html

      

26 DECEMBER

Not knowing how to make himself understood, God came to earth himself, poor and humble. If Christ Jesus had not lived among us, God would remain far off, inaccessible. Jesus allows us to see God shining through his life. (5)  

5. John 14:9

Christmas Eve

Beautiful clear dark sky;

The beginning of a frosty nip in the air,

And a new crescent moon arises among distant stars.

Was it such a night as this

That shepherds were out keeping watch over their flocks near Bethlehem?

And after the angel, which scared the life out of them,

Just imagine vast flocks of angels spiraling around, 

Like streams of coloured light dancing in the darkness...

Wow... all that joyful breathtaking glory...

this oil painting was requested as a Christmas card this year by Cornerstone, Charitas, Diocese of Salford

www.cornerstonecds.org.uk 

How can this be ?

I originally painted this as part of a series on Mary of Magdala (John ch 20 ),
when the person she thinks is the gardener finally calls her by name...

I had spent days...weeks... trying to visualize that part of the story...
thinking that it must have taken Mary some time to really turn around from her grief and wailing compounded by the fear that Jesus' tomb had been desecrated and his body removed.

 I wanted to try and portray that initial surprise, an in-drawn breath,
  thinking...
 part of her mind must have been saying "how do you know my name ?"
 even though a deeper level of herself actually recognized his voice.

 Surely, I thought, there must have been an "in between" moment
 when time stood still: 'but how can that be...?"
and then her mind began to adjust to the "impossible"...

 and that moment was what I tried to convey in this painting.

 But when my husband first saw the painting, he thought it depicted the Annunciation.

He saw the bright background as the presence of the Angel Gabriel,
and then Jesus' mother Mary reacting in surprise,
wondering just what this could mean...

another in-between moment
when time stood still
and her mind needed to adjust to the impossible

"how can this be...? "        


I find it fascinating when people react in very different ways to a painting...

and so I offer it to you...
perhaps you see something different ?

I would love to know if it communicates something to you...

do leave me a comment... I will not publish your name or email address:
your comment will come direct to me
and if you do not wish me to make it public on this blog,
then just say so and it will be for my eyes only.

Just after writing this blog I received an email sharing another blog on the Annunciation with paintings for reflection... "the pause before yes" by Debbie Thomas:  http://www.journeywithjesus.net/

Advent Hands 3

Now for the final verse of Catherine Alder's poem Advent Hands...

the first verse invited us to imagine the hands of Joseph,
then we moved on to envisage the hands of John the Baptist in verse 2;

But whose are these hands ... ?

"I see a fist held tight and fingers blanched to white.
Prying is no easy task.
These fingers find a way of pulling back to old positions,
protecting all that was and is. 
Blanched to white. No openness. All fright.
But then the Spirit comes.
A holy Christmas dance begins
and blows between the twisted paths.
This fist opens
slowly,
gently,
beautifully,
the twisted fingers letting go.
Their rock-solid place in line has eased.
And one by one the fingers lift
True colour is returned 
And through the deepest of mysteries,
The holiest of holies,
O longing of longings
Beyond all human imagining 
this fist,
as if awakened from Lazarus’ cold stone dream
reaches out to hold the tiny newborn hand of God."

El Greco: Adoration of the Shepherds

"...But then the Spirit comes.

                                                         A holy Christmas dance begins..."