"The 'Mary' in Terry #2," 25 1/2" x 19 1/2", pastel and 24 kt. gold leaf on La Carte pastelboard
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Spiritual Paintings and Portraits by Mona Diane Conner
All art images, photographs, and content of this blog are © Mona Diane Conner 2014, and may not be reproduced in any form whatsoever, online or in print, without permission.
What this Blog is About: The Divine in Each Person
We are not equal to God’s Divine power, yet we carry it’s seed within each of us. Over time I am developing a series of spiritually-toned portraits of one person, then another, attempting to pin down that seed of the Divine within the individual as it expresses itself uniquely through each of us. If it is true that we are made in God’s image, is there is a way in which we don’t really perceive this in ourselves, or what it fully means about the measure of each person’s life? Yet if all of creation is a reflecting image of the Divine, it must be true that we are more special than we know. It is this missed part---the divine-yet-human part in each of us--- that I attempt to highlight with my series of each person, beginning with my first subject, The Divine in Kimberly.
If we could really see ourselves as God sees us, how would it change us? Would it help us grow closer in our relation to the Divine? Would it heal us? Would it expand and shift our understanding about who we really are? Religion and spirituality are in a sense flip sides of one coin which are only reflected in each of us by how our actual actions pan out in our lives. Kimberly wears a veil in salute to her reverence for the Divine Feminine in several guises--Mary, and living Indian avatar, Amritanandamayi Ma. She is not Mary or Amma, or a portrayal of them in costume, yet she carries them so dear in her heart that the beauty of this expresses out to all with whom she comes into contact.
Once my mother had a dream. In her dream she was trying to walk home, but she felt lost at first because all the houses were beautiful mansions that looked alike. Which one was hers? Each mansion had lit candles in every window. Then seeing these candles, a safe feeling came over her that although she thought she had been lost, every one of these mansions was actually her home.
It's many lives I believe that we live and it's many mansions, both in heaven and on earth, that we are given to explore, and as in my mother's dream, candles are lit in every window of every mansion, calling us home there too. On earth these mansions lie within each of us, each one a realm of its own within a person, an aspect of who we are. It is these mansions we need to explore in order to fully realize our true human potential.
If we could really see ourselves as God sees us, how would it change us? Would it help us grow closer in our relation to the Divine? Would it heal us? Would it expand and shift our understanding about who we really are? Religion and spirituality are in a sense flip sides of one coin which are only reflected in each of us by how our actual actions pan out in our lives. Kimberly wears a veil in salute to her reverence for the Divine Feminine in several guises--Mary, and living Indian avatar, Amritanandamayi Ma. She is not Mary or Amma, or a portrayal of them in costume, yet she carries them so dear in her heart that the beauty of this expresses out to all with whom she comes into contact.
Once my mother had a dream. In her dream she was trying to walk home, but she felt lost at first because all the houses were beautiful mansions that looked alike. Which one was hers? Each mansion had lit candles in every window. Then seeing these candles, a safe feeling came over her that although she thought she had been lost, every one of these mansions was actually her home.
It's many lives I believe that we live and it's many mansions, both in heaven and on earth, that we are given to explore, and as in my mother's dream, candles are lit in every window of every mansion, calling us home there too. On earth these mansions lie within each of us, each one a realm of its own within a person, an aspect of who we are. It is these mansions we need to explore in order to fully realize our true human potential.
About Me
- Mona Diane Conner
- In addition to my website: monadianeconner.com, I am pleased to present four painting blogs to the public --- my portrait blog, "Mona Conner Portraits," my spiritual paintings blog, "Grander Joy of Spirit," my miniature painting blog, "The Ruby Slippers," and "Windows of the Soul - Eye Portraits in Miniature." Please note that "Windows of the Soul" will remain active in order to introduce the tradition of miniature eye portraits in modern terms; however, future eye portraits (along with other kinds of portraits) will also post on "Mona Conner Portraits."
13 comments:
She's beautiful Mona...And welcome back online! Good luck with the snowstorm tomorrow! We got 3 feet on Sat., and we are supposed to get up to 20" tomorrow night. (We typically get 15" in a whole winter.) It's Snowmageddon here!
Mona,
Wow. This is gorgeous. You have such a gift.
Deb, Karen, thank you so much!
Absolutely beautiful, Mona. Well done.
Gold leaf on La Carte?... Looks terrific, but I never would guess it is possible. May I ask "how" ?...
Thanks Ed and Tatiana. In answer to your question Tatiana, it wasn't a simple process, but I thought it worked out well:
Because La Carte pastel board has a grit surface of vegetable flake and cork painted on it, I needed to remove it from the background to have a smooth surface for gold-leafing. I made a vellum trace frisket of the portrait's silhouette which I loosely taped over the pastel portion to protect it. I used a brush, water, and paper towel to remove the water-soluble grit on the board, which left a smooth, hot-press surface underneath. After two coats of dark red acrylic gouache, I applied an oil-gilding size to position gold leaf on the background.
I can only say "WOW"! Idea about removing of "sanding surface" around already painted portrait!... You are one very brave woman, Mona! But if such a thing could be done for the future you can do it, probably immediately after you transferred your drawing, but didn't work your pastels in yet... Anyhow - very complicated process, I'm glad to see it worked out for you, I'm a big fan of this your work. It would be awful to see something happened to it. (Now I have an itch to try scratch some La Carte off and paint it with something "flat"!)
Thank You for all explanations. BTW, what kind of gold leaf you are using? I never had a chance to try a real thing, just a paints.
I did this after most of the pastel work partly because I didn't realize I wanted a gold background until that point in the painting. Pastel is a messy medium, so I'm not sure it would felt easier the other way around, and doing it this way kept a spontaneous quality in the pastel portion.
I was using Russian 24 kt. gold leaf.
Absolutely beautiful, Mona!! Gold behind her head looks like a halo. I love it!
thanks Akiko!
Ohhhhh!
This is stunning, Mona!
The colors are so rich yet still natural looking. And the gold leaf, well, that just steals the show!
I love it!
-Dean
In awe. I'm so glad Tatiana asked the question, because it's the first one that sprang to my mind: How on earth did you do this!! thanks for the explanation. It's an amazing result. She really pops off in relief. I also agree with Tatiana - you are a very brave woman with a very steady hand. Gorgeous, gorgeous portrait, Mona.
Dean and Liz, thank you!
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