Ora et Labora

The title of the painting, Ora et Labora, is Latin for Pray and work.

From left to right, I'll list the symbols as they pertain to the individual:
Nun #1 - The Crane: Loyalty, Monastic life. Ivy wreath: hospitality. Lamp: Wisdom.
Nun #2 - Columbine flower: Holy Spirit. Snow: Purity, innocence. Heart: love and charity.
Nun #3 - Scallop shell: Pilgrim. Bee: hard work. Potter's wheel: being formed by God.
Nun #4 - Butterfly: new life. Fern: solitude, humility and sincerity. Sunflower: keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.
The colors have meaning also. Gold: worth. Blue: wisdom and charity. Green: growth, life, hope. Red: love, holy zeal.
In the background are wheat fields. Wheat has always represented the Holy Eucharist which is what the Catholic faith is centered around.

St. Emma's

Every year there is a couple's retreat at St. Emma's Benedictine Monastery. The good sisters who run the place are beautiful and caring and make an interesting subject to paint.

This is a fairly large canvas, 3'x4'. I toned the canvas with a dilute mixture of Viridian green and Transparent red oxide, which creates a range of raw umber colors.

Next I started with the far right face. I always block in the area with a thin glaze of Terra Rosa, wipe out the highlights of the nose and forehead, then with stronger terra rosa I mark the inside corner of each eye. From there I rough in the eyes and start lifting off more highlights. It's much like sculpture because you are modeling a form.

The red and green tones on the faces are part of the underpainting, to influence the skin tone I will apply later.

The black Habits of the sisters were painted on with a knife. The designs in each one are scraffitoed into the thick paint (each design is based on a Christian symbol that I felt said something about that person.) My intention is to paint the faces very luminously, but the Habits will be flat and graphic. Wheat fields will develop in the background.

Fox Den And Hemlock finished

Painting fur can be daunting if you don't know what order to put down the colors. I started out blocking in the fox shape with a transparent red oxide. Using a tiny grass rake brush, the various shades of earthy reds were worked, layer upon layer. The highlights were last.

Talk about tiny! The pups' heads are only about 5/16th of an inch.

After it dries, I will coat the painting with Galkyd medium. It will give it an even gloss, and because it is a painting medium, not a varnish, it can be applied over paint that has just dried. Varnishes can only be applied after about 6 months of cure time. Galkyd also deepens all the darks and brings out the brightness of lighter colors. Below is Fox and Fern, which has been coated with Galkyd.

Painting in Miniature

                                               

Let me quote the Miniature Art Society of Florida: "Miniature art is fine art. Miniature art is most often extremely detailed work, exquisite in color with a strength of composition which can more than compete with larger paintings. A compositional guide requires a gentle, no more than 1/6th scale of the actual subject. 

A miniature usually takes as long or longer to produce as a large piece of art. A fine miniature can be magnified many times and it will still hold together as a fine work of art of much greater size. This unique art form, based on a minute scale, traces its roots back to the book paintings and illuminated manuscripts of the 7th century."

I prefer to paint on copper, due to it's smooth surface and midtone color. Although most miniatures rely on a white support to reflect light through the thin layers of paint, I proceed as if I am painting one of my large canvases. Thus I am painting a true miniature of MY art.

To begin, I start with a square or rectangle of copper (copper roof flashing works wonderfully). I polish the surface, then spray it with a matte fixative. It allows the color of the copper to show, but dulls the surface to allow the paint to stick. It also protects the copper from oxidation.