So, back at the end of last year I was asked by a local artist and art teacher if I would paint a panel for a 2023 Easter Walk of Witness, this to be in Cookham, Berkshire on 7th April 2023. Cookham is very dear to my heart. I lived and brought up both my children there and enjoyed this lovely village for over 20 years. This large panel (2ft x 3ft) will be to illustrate one of the Stations of The Cross and will be placed outside the Catholic church in Cookham Rise. I was lucky enough to be given 'Christ Meets His Mother' as my subject. What a challenge and how daunting to follow in the footsteps of some of the most famous and celebrated artists in the world to paint the Son of God and his mother!
How even to approach this? In my mind, I intended to paint something raw, visceral and loose but this painting had quite other ideas and painted itself in an almost Pre Raphaelite fashion. We were given a brief to include birds and or animals and you can see the peacock, eagle and sheep. When researching symbolic fauna I found that the peacock represents eternal life, the eagle - majesty and sheep of course are the 'flock' and the 'Lamb of God'.
I consulted my family with regard to content and was told by my son-in-law who is soon to be ordained as a Presbyterian minister that some biblical scholars believe that Christ did not carry the whole cross to Golgotha, just the cross beam, hence the beam lies on the floor behind him The scene is actually taken from photos of the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem which is the actual route that Christ took. These were kindly supplied by my cousin after a recent visit to the Holy Land.
Anyway, here is it - perhaps not as I would have wished but painted from the heart nevertheless.
