Oil on cradled canvas
6’ x 4.5’
May 11 – June 26, 2020
(Painting #16 for Maryhill School of Theology)
It is a starry evening. Three angels rise from the white, bougainvillea blossoms outside a Fil-Hispanic mansion to serenade the maiden Mary, who looks out on them from a receiving room window. One of them, the archangel Gabriel, offers her a bouquet of Easter lilies and announces that she has been chosen to bear the Savior of the world.
While the visual springboard for this painting was the visitation of Zeus to Leda in the form of a swan, the theological allusion is to the angelic beings who visited Sarah to inform her that she would bear a son, Isaac. Both Isaac and Jesus, son of Mary, were delegated to be sacrifices, thus bringing both the Old Testament and New Testament events full circle.
The auditory stimulus I used while completing this painting was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMkpJKPPpzQ.
Paintings #14, 15, and 16 were done during the quarantine period. The only available model for Mary was my granddaughter Angelique, and for the three angels, Neil.
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