A Question of Faith – New Paintings

I’ve been working on two new nonobjective paintings for the past 3 weeks now and the canvases are constantly changing as my ideas about what I am trying to communicate evolve. The more I paint the more   clarity I get as far as the direction of this work. I’m excited about this new series of abstract paintings with religious imagery embedded into them. I was raised in a very strict Irish Catholic home and my faith has been an important (integral) part of my life. I constantly struggle with a variety of issues concerning my religious faith and spirituality.  I see this new body of work as addressing and possibly helping me work through things like guilt, questioning, God’s plan for me redemption and salvation.

A Question of Faith #1

I must say it’s incredibly difficult to paint in a purely abstract mode. I constantly scrutinize my brush strokes, colors, lines and shapes and never am totally satisfied with the end result. So much of painting for me is intensely emotional and even gestural like Pollock’s action paintings. People think its just a matter of slapping paint on a canvas and it is not. Far from it IF you’re trying to communicate without relying on subject matter. It is so much harder to express ones innermost feelings and emotions strictly through the interrelationship of the visual elements of design – especially color.

Question of Faith #2

So I continue to work on these two paintings and I feel as though I’m getting closer to completing them. My next step is to write some religious (possibly prayer) references directly into the negative space of my compositions. Here is where I am with them so far. I just added the rosary beads to this one yesterday. Comments always welcome!