Oils on Board. 18" x 24" Work in Progress.
the Saint is one of my favorite pieces. It has always brought me peace of mind when working on it. I find her completely soothing to look at on a number of levels. For this painting, I wanted to juxtapose the serenity of the figure against the presence of cold and biting metal. And thus, create the attitude of the Saint against cold and harsh realities which would surround and affect it. Additionaly, the piece makes me think of breast canser victims, in their efforts to defend their body against a sharp and twisted growth. In reagard to the objectives of physicaly painting the Saint, I really wanted to concentrate on the red cross covering her face. In person the reds GLOW as they are layered heavily with reds, yellows, oranges, and browns to really push it's depth. I think I repainted elements of the barbed wire about 5 times over before settling on the color for it. This was primarily done in the glove area. The background is a combination of several glazed layers of yellows, browns and white. The layers act together to give it an almost gaussian feeling with rich depth.