Our Lady of Lourdes
OUR LADY OF LOURDES
The finished icon of Our Lady of Lourdes
"Our icon is now in place on the feature wall within our offices. Can I thank you once again for how wonderfully you took my rambling request for a modern painting of Our Lady, which was clearly Our Lady of Lourdes but which retained some of the recognizable features of Our Lady and created such an iconic piece. Our new Multi-Academy Trust of 21 Catholic primary and secondary schools from Nottinghamshire and Nottingham City has Our Lady of Lourdes as its patron. Many of the images I had seen were very old fashioned and unlikely to appeal to the majority of our community and I really wanted an icon which would be individual to our Trust but universally recognised. The piece you created is exceptional and captures perfectly what I struggled to articulate, let alone visualize (or even paint)!
Many thanks, once again, your work illuminates and inspires our central offices and those who come here."
James McGeachie
Chief Executive Officer
I started with beautiful materials. A sturdy frame that would last for many years and beautiful French linen. It may seem unimportant to some, but for me, every detail is important, not just in terms of the appearance of the painting, but for the story that I have to create in order to immerse myself in a piece of work. This is because I think of art not just a technical act, but as the outcome of a narrative process. It is also hard and exacting work and for that, I need to be inspired, engaged and motivated to tell a story.
So whilst I am doing this work, I will not be working on any other projects, for at least two weeks. This will enable me to be fully focused on this project. The materials and the making of the canvas. The linen is measured, cut to shape using a template of primed canvas and then it is primed several times using gesso. There are four coats in all, starting with very thinned down ones and then increasing the thickness by not adding any water to the gesso. The fifth final coat is thinned down to 1/3 water 2/3 gesso and mixed with a small amount of highly concentrated tea. Three bags in 1/3 cup boiling water for ten minutes. This is to give me a softer and more 'forgiving colour to work on. See the images that follow for the process. The making and priming of a canvas like this, takes around 6-7 hours because of drying times.
To replicate something like this, I chose a larger than expected canvas, (80 x50 approximately) as I want to incorporate other elements and show the feet or at least the golden roses on the feet in some part of the image. The stream, lilies (often used to represent the Virgin Mary) are elements that I am considering. I liked the illustrational style of Charles Bosseron Chambers, whom I recently discovered as well as the image of Mary and Jesus below by William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
The depiction of the Virgin's appearance to St. Bernadette is true in all its details to the historical accounts of this Marian apparition. The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared 18 times to Bernadette Soubirous, a young poor and sick girl in the grotto of Masabielle, close to Lourdes in France in 1858. She asked for a chapel to be built in the site of the apparitions and when asked who she was, She replied: "I am the Immaculate Conception."
Our Lady asked Bernadette to wash her face at the fountain but there was no fountain there, so Bernadette dug a hole in the ground, and with muddy water washed her face while people ridiculed her, however from there sprang the famous fountain of water that has healing attributes. Many sick people have bathed themselves in that water and there have been at least 64 reported miraculous healings. Millions of people from all over the world go to Lourdes yearly in the hope of obtaining help from the generous Mother of God. St. Bernadette became a nun and departed this life at the age of 35.
Day 1:
Day 2
As I said earlier, as soon as the idea of the painting was suggested, I started to imagine what the work would look like. Research is important as is preparation and drawing. I have collected images which were beautiful, rather than specifically depicting what I might want to show. I have also sketched some faces and looked particularly at decorative symbolism which would enrich the canvas and create meaning as well as aesthetically pleasing decoration.
One of the issues that I have had to consider is that all depictions that exist, show the whole figure. That means that a canvas has to be quite large if one wants to show the facial characteristics of Our Lady. I recently completed an icon of St Thomas Aquinas and in that case, the face and hands played a significant role in setting the meaning and tone of the work.
William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
Orthodox style Icon of Our Lady of Lourdes by American iconographer Brother Simeon Davis
Faces of Mary.
Some studies in my sketchbooks below:
I made a start and some immediate alterations by drawing directly on the canvas.
Day 3
The first day of actually making irreversible marks on the canvas. At this stage, anything can really happen and it always feels like the most vulnerable part of a painting. It is where you get an instant feeling about what is going to happen days down the line. Sadly, this feeling is not always positive. Often, self-doubt dominates. Experience has however taught me, that although a good drawing and idea are essential at the early stages, a painting does not really come together until days into its life....also, it never feels right until the very end. So the trick is to stay focused on making it as best as possible. I often stop, photograph the work ask for feedback and look at things that need addressing.
How do we know when we reached the end of a piece of work and should stop? For me, it is when additional marks are not helping to improve the work. At this final stage, more work can take away from what is already there. But for the moment this stage is far down an untravelled road. Between now and then lay many moments of happiness and many of frustration as the painting evolves. The trick is to believe in one's abilities and in the value of what one is doing. A painting rarely acquires its final form in the last hours of the making process.
Day 4
I have decided to focus on the face, as this will be the main focal point of the icon of Our Lady of Lourdes. Yesterday I sketched the face and today I am adding layers of colour. So far I am working in acrylics and so far, I have only used three primaries and black and white. You can see my palette below:
The following are still early stages, and much can change as minor details will alter the feeling and the expression of the face and background.
Painting the rock opening (stylised)
Third layer on the face, including tonal blends, but still requiring additional modeling details on the eyes, mouth, and neck.
Days 5
Today I concentrated for the most part on the areas around the figure which will be important in terms of the symbolism of Mary, the Mother of God and the feeling of the painting, overall.
This website was useful:
http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/marys-symbols.htm
I used imagery inspired by medieval illuminated manuscripts for the foliage that frames Our Lady's face. I used Jasmine as it always evokes a sense of the celestial and is often the smell I associate with the divine. This harks back to the Epitafion in Greek Orthodox worship, namely the highly decorated casket used to symbolise the body of Christ, and which is installed in the church during Holy Week. The lilies are a symbol of the innocence of Mary and they too are used in the same manner. Other flowers are roses, waiting to burst into bloom, a sign of the impending birth of Christ and a symbol used in representations of Our Lady of Lourdes. I also spent a considerable amount of the day reworking the face and creating a softer visage. I made the eyes larger and a deep greenish hue and extended the mouth. I removed the furrows near the nose and softened the lighting somewhat. I feel that I will probably keep on working on the face and hands until the very end of the commission.
First underpainting layer, before changes
The above is the face before I reworked the eyes and mouth. Note the small flowers hidden in the dark areas of the hear scarf. I am also considering creating a crown of seven peaks each representing a tenant of the Catholic faith. I have not as yet decided whether this would add sufficient value to the painting, so I a still considering a simpler and more immediate representation of a crown.
Second underpainting with minor alterations/balancing of the eyes. Still a work in progress.
Day 6
The addition of the rosary and cross.
The third and fourth layers are now on the face.
In the simile of the crown, the staring letters of the following words, from left to right, hidden withing the illuminated designs:
St Bernadette looks at the vision of Mary.
Symbols of the Virgin Mary in the rocks: Rose, lily, pear, almond, iris, and periwinkle. Working on the stream to the left of the composition.
Day 7.
The background and sky, the stream and St. Bernadette, nearing completion.
At the end of the day, the choice I was faced with was to either leave the central figure looking somewhat celestial and unreal or adopt a more naturalistic and realistic face. To that end, I asked several colleagues for feedback. Their responses favoured leaving the face of the Virgin as it is shown here. I decided to leave the painting for the day and revisit it in the morning.
Day 8
Completion
So, I did wake up very early and the face simply was not right for the painting. Yesterday, I went to light a candle and say a little prayer at Holy Cross church in Leicester. There are many statues of the Virgin Mary there and I studied them for a little while. When I came to repaint the face, I think they may have influenced the decision, if not the outcome. I spend time on all aspects of the face, but the most difficult, as ever, were the eyes. Green eyes are relatively common in the Middle East. I decided to go with green and this time to keep them simpler. I also spent time adjusting the lighting and making it less sharp. I am glad I took the risk and repainted the face because now, I feel much more at peace with the outcome. After a while I started to make mistakes as I overcomplicated the process of repainting, so I took a break, came back and decided to add some very light highlights and then, call it finished.
Starting to repaint aspects of the face above, and below the finished icon. After a drying period, I will take it to the printers for scanning and making of two copies of approximately A1 size. Then it will be varnished nad after two to three days drying time, delivered to the commissioning academy.
Photographed in sunlight above and in cloudy conditions below.
Day 9
And the two prints on archival watercolour paper, collected from the printers' today.
Day 9
And the two prints on archival watercolour paper, collected from the printers' today.
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