Weight of Glory
Glory is the expectation of excellence imposed from without and from within on the sometimes-recalcitrant human will, an expectation to which the soul can rise – or not rise. It is a burden which all human beings bear since we have the choice to embrace our rational and spiritual nature and reach for understanding and love, or to creep along the ground like beasts. This burden can be quite heavy at times, and this painting (or painting series) aims to explore this weight, using the emotional distance provided by abstract forms to provoke rational meditation.
I first came up with this subject about a month ago when I was hunting around for a formal language to restart my art practice after a long hiatus, and I rediscovered the “flotsam and jetsam” language I’d been using in 2022-3, derived from earlier studies in abstracting the forms of tree roots. I played around with this language a lot in 2023, using the cast-away forms of driftwood as a symbol of human suffering and alienation. It’s a useful language but a bit too depressing, and I wanted to restart my practice by pursuing something more emotionally distant and less pathetic or disturbing.
I sketched a few ideas and then played around with them in tempera and oil pastel before studying the subject in oils. There seemed to be four or five components: the Sun, at the top of the painting, which is glory or the weight of glory; the Hand reaching up to support that weight; the Body, which has shifted around from more to less humanoid; the Horizon on which the Body stands; the Pit, which is optional but which I think should be included, a black void mirroring the Sun above.
I’ve taken some care to get both the color scheme right and the technique. I’m using a bronzy/golden palette to suggest medals or rewards – in other words, glory. The final layer is applied very thinly over a line drawing and a dried tonal underpainting and then scraped and scrubbed both with a cloth and with a dry bristle brush to achieve translucency and a bit of messiness. The edges are crisp with drop shadows to flatten the whole picture.
I’ve taken some care to get both the color scheme right and the technique. I’m using a bronzy/golden palette to suggest medals or rewards – in other words, glory. The final layer is applied very thinly over a line drawing and a dried tonal underpainting and then scraped and scrubbed both with a cloth and with a dry bristle brush to achieve translucency and a bit of messiness. The edges are crisp with drop shadows to flatten the whole picture.
In the next few weeks I’m going to paint a definitive version of this subject, plus a few smaller details based on it. The main painting will be about 3 feet by 4 feet, or something like that. As such it will be the biggest oil painting I’ve done so far (I’ve done much larger in acrylic), by about 50%. I’m very confident in the technique I’ve developed for these subjects, so I’m not apprehensive about the scale. I hope it will find a buyer eventually, and that this painting will help me relaunch my practice.