Pierced

A continuation of a series of paintings of Christ that I'm working on. This one is titled "Pierced". I wanted to display that the thorns were not small, but certainly had the capability to causing even more pain, not mention the fact that the Romans used a cane to whip Him on the top of His head after placing the "crown" on. This of course would cause piercing and deep cuts on the face, wherever the flesh was soft.

Concepts

These paintings were done for practice to experiment in lighting and environment. The first one I was inspired by the Grand Canyon and the more arid environment, while the last one was heavily influenced by Africa. No references were used.

Portrait Studies

Another set of studies that I painted. Both took about 30-40 minutes each. I used photos as reference for both.

Mercury

This was a little study I did of the statue of Mercury sculpted by Jean-Baptiste in 1744. I painted this in about 30 minutes. I used a photograph as a reference.

Freedom

Life is hard and never fair. We long for freedom, but this corruption always holds us back. There must be something outside who can free us...

40minus1

It had to happen eventually, I had to get a blog. I decided to make a blog to display my artwork. I've been wanting to this for awhile now, and have another site where my portfolio is located at, but I figured it'd be easier to post stuff on here.

First a little bit about the main purpose behind this blog.

Shortly after becoming a Christian my desire for art had waned. I used to draw/paint many pictures that were provocative and demonic (for lack of a better term) in nature, stagnant and devoid of any emotions. Though technically good they didn't provide much else to capture or draw the person into the painting.

I couldn't draw anything for nearly 4 years, there just wasn't anything that I desired to do. The only things I knew how to draw neither lifted the heart or put forth any kind of joy, so I was left wondering what to do. After the 4 years were up, God really started to lay on my heart the desire to do something else. At first it was landscapes and old buildings, but then the idea came to start illustrating the Bible and trying to capture the raw emotions and human nature as they really are.

This idea of drawing human emotion was great and all, but it was new territory for me. So I went to study some of the great masters throughout history. Plus with a lot of help from my wife and some wonderful friends critiquing my artwork, they encouraged me to put more meaning and story behind the technique.

Of course no one likes to have their work critiqued and believe me I was hesitant about it. But there is great wisdom in that critiquing is by far the best learning tool, and really helps a person to grow. Growth is what I desired and though some of the critique was difficult to swallow, and at times brutally honest, it had the effect that I believe God was going for - to get me out of the old and pursue this new journey.

Here is the picture that kicked the whole thing off, titled "40minus1."

This is a painting of Christ shortly after getting flogged by the Romans.