Mary the mother of Jesus

 

mid-September is the time when many churches named St Mary’s will be celebrating the life of Mary, Jesus’ mother...so here are some favourite paintings from around the world...

  Jesusmafa

Jyoti Sahi

Vladimir Icon

janet driver

Jesusmafa

the jesusmafa paintings are from villagers in Cameroun, West Africa who collaborated with French missionaries to produce a whole series of paintings which used to be obtainable as posters from their website which sadly seems to have closed down. Some years ago I bought a set of these posters for use with our church in London with people mainly of African or Afro- Caribbean backgrounds. Many of us love these paintings showing well - known Biblical stories in an African setting...if you search for ‘jesusmafa paintings’ or ‘jesusmafa images’ you should be able to see many more...and I will continue to add different ones to this blog whenever I can.

Sunday 9th Aug 20

 

You might like to see Debbie Thomas’ reflections on the Gospel for today at 

www.journeywithjesus.net 

artist: Yungsun Kim

The Transfiguration : St Luke 9 v 28 - 36

The Transfiguration : c. T.A.Thomas

This Indian painting conveys a strong sense of stillness, awe  and wonder, whereas the Cameroonian one below reminds me of disappearing into mist and cloud rolling down the mountain in Snowdonia...or Kilimanjaro in East Africa with its summit often surrounded by cloud.

How do you imagine this scene ?

Luke’s Gospel recounts many times when Jesus went up into the hills alone to pray, and I can well imagine the silence and solitude... walking alone... gaining perspective away from the crowds... and taking his inner group of followers up the mountainside would immediately remind them of Moses and Elijah seeking God in mountain silence & solitude.

The Indian painting reminds me of depictions of the Buddha in the Sri Lankan Dambulla  Caves, where his Enlightenment is portrayed by a rainbow of coloured light surrounding him as he sits in meditation. This Indian artist has shown Christ as an Indian Holy Man, surrounded by colourful light which both comes down upon him and shines out from within him...

The Transfiguration : c. Jesusmafa

Beautiful Birds

photo: Troy Snow

 I have seen Egrets now and then down with other birds near the water’s edge at low tide ... 

but never seen them so beautiful as in these photos !  

photo found on Pinterest 

Wednesday 22nd July

APOLOGIES ....   after several attempts to re - write & put a few paintings onto this blog in celebration of Mary Magdalene  / 22nd July...   I have once more lost the threads and paintings too...

I will try again in a few days time.... 

Mary Magdalene

22 July is the day of celebrating the life of Mary Magdalene...

... many years ago I began to realise she had become much maligned and misunderstood throughout the centuries, and this is reflected in paintings by well-known artists, who were presumably being true to the thinking of their times... ( eg Georges de la Tours & Titian )

But then I discovered an earlier painting : from the St Alban’s Psalter 1120 - 45, and what really interested me were the expressions of the disciples receiving Mary’s news that she had seen the Risen Christ... 

apologies.... this blog - post has flipped around / lost some pictures & writing....

hoping to re - write later today

St Alban’s Psalter : 1120 - 45 AD

Jurassic Cliffs, Dorset

Jurassic Cliffs : oil on canvas, c.Janet Driver

All my oil paintings are painted layer upon layer, gradually, over time, sometimes taking several weeks from the initial underpainting to the final strokes of colour...

but painting these cliffs seemed to make me even more at one with the vast centuries during which these cliffs have been slowly changed and eroded by rain, wind, waves, baking hot sun, ice & snow...

I decided to paint the rocky texture of these ancient cliffs using palette knives, so that I could drag one colour over another ...but what about the sea and sky ?

I had to experiment on practice oil-painting paper to try various techniques... then worked outwards from the cave into the waves, then up towards the horizon ... then I working on the clouds and down towards the sea...

it was very different from painting with a brush

and quite exhilarating...

Don’t forget... I am now changing from ‘a picture a day’ during lockdown

into a few paintings on a theme 

once a week or fortnight

...I will be back again next Tuesday or Wednesday...

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