After a long time away (indeed, almost a decade!), I’ve started painting again this summer at the encouragement of a local artist whom I met at a museum exhibit. Once I’d done a couple of experimental acrylic paintings on canvas board, I decided to try my hand at a little religious art on canvas.
For personal reasons, I wanted to depict the Blessed Virgin Mary with a single red rose, and it was supposed to be a relatively simple painting. As with any art that I do, however, it took on its own direction even from early on.
Notice how I didn’t follow the face sketch at all. She was originally supposed to be white, and the halo was supposed to be white or yellow, but I thought — eh, why be cliché and ethnocentric?
As references I used an image of Our Lady of Czestochowa and a few rose photographs and vector images. I also took inspiration from Our Lady of Fatima and Our Lady of Guadalupe, though I didn’t actually reference those images while I was painting.
The result is below! And the original is now hanging on my living room wall.
(Note that there are five roses on her collar and five in the halo, which represent the five decades of the Rosary.)
