Monday, April 5, 2010

The Emmaus Road

This year's Easter service focused on the story of the road to Emmaus, where resurrected Jesus meets with two of his disciples and shares with them the gospel story from the prophets of the Old Testament to the his present age. The two disciples did not recognize Jesus until after they arrived to the town and started eating a meal with him. The message was presented as if one of the disciples was writing a letter to Luke (the author of one of the Gospels where the story is found) telling of the story of how they witnessed Jesus after his resurrection.
The process of the painting was to prepare the canvas by darkening it with brown and black tones. Then I added tape to the canvas and darkened it to hide it from the view of the audience.
On painting day I covered the canvas using a brush to paint the background, foreground, and mid-ground, keeping the brushstroke very loose. After paint was layed out on the canvas I removed the tape to first reveal the sections of the landscape - like what you would see in an aerial view. The final removing of tape revealed a crossroads showing the symbol of the cross and the main road to Emmaus. It is a little difficult to see, but if you look at the three figures towards the center of the crossroads you will notice one of them is carrying a shepherd's staff. this symbolizes Jesus. Other symbolic imagery are the clouds which represent God the Father and the dove which represent the Holy Spirit (he's carrying an olive branch).
Oh, check out the slide show on the right side of this page. It shows the process of the painting. My wife did a wonderful job taking pictures during the service.


7 comments:

Jennifer Edwards said...

This is awesome! I'm assuming your painted in the service while the sermon was going on? Powerful! I really enjoy your artwork...keep on being the artist God made you to be!

donna said...

What a wonderful painting!

Anonymous said...

This is wonderful!! Painting along with the sermon is such a lovely, innovative, creative idea. You did a great job and your church is blessed to see such a talented artist at work!!

Ramona Davidson said...

I keep learning about art from everyone. Never knew about painting along with the sermon. The picture you painted is really touching and meaningful. Wonderful art.

Revelle Taillon said...

Love it!
Revelle

Janene said...

Lovely!

DALowe Artist said...

Incredible! This is so well-done - I love the imagery and symbolism. I love the message in this - I am sure this service was very special. I wish I could have been there! Keep painting and drawing for the glory of GOD! He is using you in a great way.