Reason or Revelation - new work for June 2011

I guess what has developed in the new works ("If I had one wish..." and "Does my bomb look big in this?") is an obsession for yet more detail. Or perhaps it is more correct to observe that mezzotint has always sharpened both my awareness of the potential for, and the desire to achieve the rendering of images that I am making with a greater finesse.

As far as content goes, it is really a continuing development of the theme Reason or Revelation that I have touched on before (see the post below for September 2010 about last Octobers new work). That is why I re-organised the website with a new section under that title and grouped work from 2006 onwards in it. With hindsight it is possible to see 2006 as a time of transition, seeking , developing and incorporating images from my interest in science within the greater pool of source material that I delve in to. "Integrae Naturae" is perhaps a good example from 2006.

And "The Last Supper"...?

For those waiting for news of developments, just click on the picture of my studio above to enlarge it. I know some of you have said you don't necessarily want to see the painting in progress so I hope this view only gives you a glimpse! To date I have started half of the figures and have them in place. I still have to finish them and then consider the others alongside all of the still life elements for the table top (not to mention the table cloth itself!), the objects for hanging on the back wall...whatever they may be and also if I am going to get Leo the dog back in. Who knows? I'll keep you informed though.

Late Night Last Suppers

Every Friday and Saturday since early January I have been doing twelve hour shifts painting and repainting the upper room for the Last Supper (the commission for Langside Church in Glasgow, Scotland).  I feel more like a painter and decorator than an artist as it seems I have been painting the walls and the ceiling of this "upper room" for ever.

But it is coming on, slowly. Remember it is over three and a half metres long and I am incapable of using a brush larger than a quarter of an inch across.  Basically I am still blocking in shapes and areas of tone whilst attempting some colour. I always redo the backgrounds in my paintings a quite a number of times. Its just the way I work in oils, building up layers of paint, scraping them back and forming textures that look less like paint on a canvas and hopefully more like paint on an old plaster wall. Have a look at some other paintings and you'll see what I mean. Because this painting is a large one by my normal standards it takes a full days work and more just to repaint the back wall or ceiling or whatever. It also gives me the chance to get the colours and tones just right when I decide to redo it. But being so large it takes ages. Still, at least the studio is warm now after the heating broke down during January's big freeze.

But progress is being made and I am happy with what is starting to come together now in terms of atmosphere and lighting. Soon I hope to start on the fun bits, namely the figures and portraits. Keep in mind, the last one (for which this is the replacement) took me almost eighteen months to complete. So with this one there is still a long way to go.

A bit about October's new work

One thing that often fascinates me is the relationship between faith (and also organised religion) and science. During the Islamic enlightenment there was a symbiosis of the two. They complimented and supported each other.

Why is this not the case in the west, historically or in the present day? A major contributing factor has to be the collapse of the Roman Empire and the onset of the Dark Ages in Europe when some (not all) in power within the church fought to hold on to that power and the security that it brought. During the Renaissance, much of the established church brutally opposed anything that threatened it. It may have been the discovery of a solar-centric rather than Earth-centric creation first proposed by Copernicus and then Galileo, or pursuing medical knowledge of the human condition via dissection by Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo for example.

Then came both the Industrial and Science Revolutions with science now in a position to improve our lives. Until then, organised religion had taught us that after the loss of Paradise everything was going down hill. Science could now begin to answer the difficult questions and could ultimately aim to put the superstition of religion out of its misery.

So now that the boot is on the other foot why should we be surprised that some scientists have taken a viciously atheistic stance against religion. It doesn't help that a small minority of my coreligionists still sometimes seen to be as closed minded in their way as those who say "there is no life after death...end of story". That said, I still recall two talks given to us in fifth year at high school as part of the Religious Education program by two science teachers. One, a physicist, was a confirmed atheist, the other was a chemist and a committed Christian.

Where is all this leading (my rambling I mean...not the conflict of religion versus science)? Well, it explains the increasing alchemical references and symbolism in work such as "Seven signs" or "Words with a prophet". It is something that I have touched on before with the incorporation of such phrases as "reason or revelation" and "the world of the philosopher or the world of the mystic" in other recent work.

Jerusalem still underpins it all for me though as evidenced by the ceramic tile from "Stone crazy" shown above. You'll see the Arabic writing on the tile and you might wonder what the word is. Look again. Read it from left to right as stylised English letters (not right to left as in Arabic) and you'll see I have designed it as a Hebrew word written in English but in an Arabic style. As Rolf Harris (famous Aussie entertainer and "live" painter on TV in the UK) used to say, "can you tell what it is yet?"

Answers on a postcard to..................

Life's Angels and drum hitters

So...what do angels and djembes (West African drums) have in common? Well...I saw an angel playing a djembe the other day in Buchanan Street in Glasgow's city centre.

Terry from Gambia (or was it Ghana he said?) was playing away and singing in his native language with a huge grin on his face while catching the eye of passers by and making them smile. And all this in a busy, frantic and slightly stressed lunchtime pedestrian shopping street. 

After twenty minutes of smiling, drumming and singing he stopped and collected the money that folks had dropped in his cap and as he walked forward I though he was going to buy himself a can of coke or something from the newsagent. But no! He walked up to a young woman collecting for charity and dropped a share of his coins into her bucket. Suprised? Not after I had got talking to Terry from Ghana...or was it Gambia?........

New work to be released soon. Meanwhile keep an eye on www.stuartduffin.com