I've paused my work on this portrait to begin the gold-leafing for it's background which helps establish the outline of the veil. Later on I'll be adding mother-of-pearl as a border.
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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."
9 comments:
Travail absolument magnifique, magique... bravo et à très bientôt pour la suite...
Vous etes tres gentil Martine, merci.
The work you do is truly amazing Mona - I am always in awe!!!
This is so extraordinary! I love the rich colors in her face and the flowers, and that scarf! wow!!! so beautiful.
Is the red base a glue? or is it a painted base that gets adhesive for the gilding?
Also - do you use the same glue for the mother of pearl?
Karen and Liz, thanks.
The red is clay bole which I'm applying in preparation to water-gild. It has rabbit skin glue among other ingredients.
I've never worked with mother-of-pearl before, so I'm still investigating the best glue for adhering it to the gold leaf.
I don't think I've ever seen you use mother of pearl before...This is going to be fun!
Interesting to see this painted on what appears to be a wooden door/panel instead of a typical rectangular canvas.
This is going to look great. I know it!
-Dean
Thanks for the info...looking forward to seeing the next phase. Mother of pearl on gold leaf sounds tricky indeed!
Dean, this is actually painted on a traditional icon panel. Because I am doing a spiritual portrait I wanted to echo certain elements common to icon painting, such as the use of this type of panel and also water gilding. However, an icon and a spiritual painting are two distinctly different things.
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