Recent series of a Catholic Church

Inspiration for my most recent series

Back in July 2008 I was commissioned to do a painting of a wedding at a catholic church in Montecito. The church went by the name of Our Lady of Monte Carmel. I went up into the choir loft which looked down on the wedding, to do the painting. What is interesting about this church is that it is well known for its unique architecture and interior. It has a beautiful alter area where you can see a lot of carved decoration, interesting paint, different sorts of woodwork, and circular carvings on the nearby wall. What is also interesting about the architecture is its adobe Spanish look. I was inspired to do a series of paintings from different areas outside the church during the times of the day where light was strong, creating interesting shadow patterns around the walls and plants. Those paintings are currently in a gallery in Montecito, which interestingly is only half a mile away from the church.




Painting Our Lady

Our Lady Of Mt. Carmel Series

In this series of paintings the focus was really on the doors and entrances where areas would pass from one place to another. In some of the paintings we just see a door and in some of the paintings we see through the door to the area behind it. This creates a sense of space beyond just the opening and integrates shapes by seeing them in the outward area.

As I continue to paint, especially in the case of architecture, what I notice that interests me is the play of shadows, light areas and shadow areas and how they create positive and negative shapes that can be used for composition. I also notice that I like the contrast between the verticals and horizontals of the architecture and the diagonals that occur from the light falling to the side. A protrusion often will create a shadow that has a direction and movement. The reason I think this is visual pleasing is because verticals and horizontals tend to create stability and calmness whereas angular shapes have energy and direction. So in an attempt to create color relationships of the light and dark areas there is also an interest in line contrast of the diagonals, verticals and horizontals.



Our Lady Entrance Gate



Santa Barbara House in Light



Our Lady Side Door



Our Lady Garden Door



Our Lady Entrance Door