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Saint Francis ...completed

26/5/2012

Saint Francis finally appears completed...

Well at least I decided that I should now stop working on it. Since taking a week's break from it I took time to look at it closely and try to see what was missing. What I did was try to define the colors a bit better - so now the dog, the cat and the saint's clothing have taken on different hues. The minimalist background landscape also had its hues and shadows tuned up a tad. Perhaps more important, the columns have been given a greenish tinge and this color was also added to the triangular spaces in which the angels float. This has helped to give some "weight" to the architectural elements around the main image.

I am still in some doubt about this work...to me it seems like it sits slightly uncomfortably between several stools....

I prefer to think of it as a reasonably decent specimen of naive art at best.

I will probably try my hand at something a bit simpler next.

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Time out

6/5/2012

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It is now nearly two months that I have labored (heavy word that) on this drawing and I feel it has drained me out. Labored as in making progress with difficulty. I will probably take a break from it and try to start working on a new drawing in the meantime. Admittedly I have done some decent work on this one but there is still this feeling that something is somehow missing and I suspect it has to do with color most of all. So I will hang it on my easel and let it talk to me for a while until such time as the proverbial light bulb moment strikes.

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Work in Progress – Saint Francis so far

6/4/2012

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It has been more than a month now that I have worked on this new drawing and I still think I am far from completing this particular picture. It has proved a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. I am deciding on additions – and general composition - bit by bit as I go along. I have now come to the stage where I have the basic saintly figure and the accompanying cat and dog (is there a place for a bird somewhere?) and I have framed the trio between two pairs of columns and added an arch. The whole thing still looks like it is less than half completed.

I thought it best to take a photo of the work done so far and decide on the way forward by manipulating in a couple of scenarios. I do not believe this is cheating…it is just a more efficient way to test and visualize how the end work could eventually look.

The inspirations behind this picture are many. First Saint Francis himself, a wealthy, worldly man who turned his back on all things material and decided to embrace poverty. A shining example through the ages, perhaps more so in the modern, consumerist, must-have-now world we live in today.

Then there is something of the miniature holy pictures from my childhood (santi in Maltese) which I think always had some effect on most children of the sixties growing up in what was then (on the face of it at least) a devoutly Catholic country. These were probably among the foremost visual images then – along with collectible cards featuring animals, soldiers’ historical uniforms, and of course dinosaurs.

There is also the medieval angle to the composition. I simply love Proto Renaissance paintings…the stiff figures and poses…the gold everywhere…the unlikely landscapes…the architectural motifs… the heavy Byzantine influences… Think Duccio di Bouninsegna, think Giotto, think Fra Angelico - you get the picture (Comparisons are odious I know, in this case they border on the outrageous). To this day these paintings are among the foremost I look for in any major art museum I visit.

I will not necessarily adhere slavishly to the landscape, columns and motifs I have added digitally to help me map the way forward but they will certainly help.

I reckon this picture will take a few more weeks to complete.

This is actually only the second time I am attempting a drawing on a quasi-religious theme and using Christian iconography.

I had previously completed "Visitation" in 1995. (image on left) showing an anonymous saintly nun being visited by an unabashedly unclothed angel delivering a rose. I remember that the rendering of the massive archway was murder but the nun was a joy to draw - a wobbly curvy shape with an equally oval face.

This remains a favorite work of mine (even if I say so) and I like the subtle humour of the work.

There are obviously parallels between the drawing I am doing now and this one.

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Saint Francis ...completed

Time out

Work in Progress – Saint Francis so far

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