Since 1994, I've been reading through the Bible every year, so every year I read the incredible story of Peter's fish and the coin. There is a fish called "Peter's Fish," that is by tradition a tilapia, although which of the hundreds of tilapia varieties it may have been is a guess. Our own Gulf Red Snapper bears a remarkable resemblance to some of them and, luckily for me, was in the local market when this painting was conceived.
I wanted to do a painting like this because I am so moved by the Biblical story. Here's an excerpt from Matthew 17, so you can see it: When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?” He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?” And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”
Here's what hits me: Jesus told his disciples that he would make them "fishers of men" and the fish became the symbol of the first church. Peter often got himself in trouble by speaking too quickly, as he did here, but later he would become the spokesman for the first church. The shekel was 4 drachmas, to pay for both Jesus and Peter. Jesus, who did not have to pay, being the Son, still paid. And he paid for Peter. This is a picture of the Gospel. Peter, the first one who would publicly speak the Christian message, draws the payment, miraculously provided by God, from the mouth of the symbol of the church, which is the Body of Christ.
This painting is going to be in a show at Christ Church Cathedral in Houston. It looks better in person so come to the show with me!
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I painted this in Arkansas one afternoon, standing on the shores of Lake Dardanelle. For awhile, two of my favorite peeps were with me but they finished up and took off. Soon after that, a group of people arrived, consisting of two couples and someones mom. They sashayed past the "No Fishing From Pier" sign with their fishing gear and proceeded to fish off the pier, right across from Arkansas Nuclear One cooling tower. I tell you, it made a great poster. Their colorful lawn chairs and the big red "no fishing" sign would have made a very nice painting. I hope you'll accept this painting as a suitable substitute, since it was nearing completion when the new painting arrived.
One of our paint days in Arkansas was rainy. We were caravanning up to Petit Jean State Park, hoping for clearing, but twas not to be.
I'm back from New York and ready to get to work, starting with this blog!
This is Chelsea, the same Chelsea from a couple of posts ago. She has naturally curly hair that also looks very natural straight, so when she came to the studio one day with curly hair, I was taken aback for a moment! I very much love the curls.
James' Game of Risk has been selected for the Grand National Exhibition in New York City, sponsored by the American Artists Professional League. This organization has existed since the 1920's and was founded "to advance the cause of the fine arts in America through the promotion of high standards of beauty, integrity and craftsmanship in painting, sculpture and the graphic arts (and) to emphasize the importance of order and coherent communication as prime requisites of works of art through exhibitions and publications."
Chelsea and I worked very hard our first day together. We had many plans but our plans were altered when the studio was invaded by college men who evidently are very interested in the creation of art. There can be no other explanation for their hovering and hanging around.
I haven't been posting much because I've been working on larger paintings and have been very focused on that~ I hope you'll forgive me.
Tammy O'Shanter, so named for the hat the model's wearing~ but you know that. She's the same model from yesterday's post. This is one of my favorite studies ever, perhaps because it was so hard to capture. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's a real struggle. I'm including a picture of the work in progress so you can see for yourself how far from whence I came.
This is a Houston model who was sitting under a very bright light almost ninety degrees overhead, minus about five degrees. Since the painting was only about that light, I thought I maybe should call it by the light number, like "3400 Kelvin." I kind of like that. But I went with it's direction instead.
Sometimes, when you are just in the familiarization stage of a painting, its strength tells you to stop. It seems too soon; all the rest of you wants to keep painting and painting until it's just a weak sister of the original image, but sometimes a person can be stopped from ruining a good start. In this case, it was Clayton Beck who stopped me, and I trust his judgment over mine.
Eve's decision was whether to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, or obey God and get to live in the Garden of Eden. This painting tries to capture the very moment that she has decided and begins to turn away from God. I wanted to include every flower that I would miss, and I tried to make it look like the flowers would miss Eve, too. I'm so glad that there are flowers outside of the Garden of Eden! Of course we have to tend them and protect them and pull the weeds that want to choke them. I imagine that there were no weeds in Eden and that the light was soft and filtered, and I tried to paint it so. I believe that at this moment, Eve thought she had made a good decision. 
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