A Family of Faith

Sophia Institute Press has a new family catechesis program coming out in August, A Family of Faith.

Image from Sophia Institute

It features lots of coloring and circle-the-right-thing activities, with illustrations by me. It has chapters for each month of the school year. You can check out a sample here--just click on Read More and there's a pdf link.

It's all available for pre-order now.

Peace

P E A C E

An image I made a while back now available in print.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/280891244/peace-giclee-print?ref=shop_home_feat_2

Hand-painted stole

Here's a stole I hand-painted for a friend.  "Mary and Joseph". Notice the pistil parts are three nails in the center of the lily.  His church is very contemporary, and the rose window is one big rose! This could be for any Marian day or Feast of St. Joseph, weddings, Easter, Christmas...  It was a true joy creating it - -  a new artistic avenue?  

The stole was sewn by Junice at www.junice.com 

Mary did you know,

Beautiful song, some of the lyrics are a bit problematic, but it inspired this piece nevertheless.
"Mary did you know that your baby boy would calm the storm with his hand?"

Catholic Icons

Hi, everyone! I am new at the Catholic Illustrators Guild and happy to be here. I am an iconography apprentice learning to write Catholic icons in the Russian-Byzantine tradition. The recessed and panel icons I have completed so far can be seen at my site Created Beauty. Here are two of the icons I recently finished:

 

The icons are all written using natural pigments with water-based egg tempera on wood covered with linen and traditional gesso, together with 23.5 kt gold leaf and/or silver leaf burnished by hand. Check out my site and please do not hesitate to get in touch at createdbeautyicons@gmail.com should you have any questions.

Thanks, enjoy!

Marcelle

Saint Joseph

Christ in Majesty

Completed for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Ruler of the Universe. More about this image on my blog.

RELIC

This is a little something me and my brother are working on, let me know what you think?

The last stand

Just finished this cover for a new graphic novel

St. Anthony of Padua Holy Card

A dear friend of mine celebrated the Sacrament of Matrimony on May 28th and graciously asked me to come up with a holy card the couple could distribute at the reception.

Hero of Lepanto

Don John of Austria

Feast Day of the Guardian Angels

This is still a work in progress, but I wanted to honor the day.

Archangels Gabriel, Raphael, Michael

 

September 29 is the Feast of the Guardian Angels.

on a personal note I have received a little press in the last couple of weeks, 

at Catholic.org

And our own Daniel Mitsui interviewed me on his blog

The Lion & the Cardinal

St. William of Roskilde

September 2 is the memorial for Saint William of Roskilde.

Interview with Daniel Mitsui

Daniel will be a great addition to Smallpax. To mark the occasion I have a more recent interview (last week) with him that I have posted here.

The Function of Art

In 1952 Pope Pius XII addressed a group of Italian artists he received in audience. The entire address is only 15 very short paragraphs but of great value for artists struggling in the darkness of the secular world looking for a light to guide them.

The Function of Art

"The function of all art lies in fact in breaking through the narrow and tortuous enclosure of the finite, in which man is immersed while living here below, and in providing a window on the infinite for his hungry soul." - Pope Pius XII

Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles

I have been trying to post new art each week on my blog so this week, Saints Peter and Paul.

Sacred Heart/Immacualte Heart

I actually posted these on my blog on the appropriate days, but I think you are right J.R. I was remiss not to post them here. I think most Smallpaxers have seen them from previous posts. At any rate these are more contemporary takes on traditional imagery.

Symbolism vs. Abstract vs. Visionary?

One of the intriguing aspects of religious artists is how they choose to portray the spiritual. There are some who think this can only be done as abstract art. But abstract art fails in that the viewer frequently has no starting point from which they can interpret the image. For two thousand years artists have built up a rich vocabulary of symbolism in order to portray spiritual subjects.
So-called visionary art is an interesting intersection of the two. It isn't normally the type of art one thinks of as useful to religious artists but there is something intriguing about it. While looking at the art in an upcoming Visionary Art Conference I couldn't shake the feeling that reminded me of the work of St. Hildegard von Bingen

What do you think? Was St. Hildegard the first, maybe the only Catholic visionary artist?

Catholic Illustration

The Morgan Library & Museum in New York city is currently exhibiting the "Hours of Catherine of Cleves." Even if you don't live close enough to check it out in person they have a terrific website set up.
A "book of hours" was a handmade, hand-lettered, illustrated book of psalms, prayers and devotions that was popular in the middle ages. Each of them of course is unique and some of them are quite elaborate in their page decoration and illustrations.
All of them are a great source of inspiration.
Demons and Devotion: The Hours of Catherine of Cleves