Monday, November 12, 2012

Yet another painter

Charles Weed






I said below what I have said before, that all too often, Catholics trying consciously to do art for the Greater Glory of God become so self-consciously Catholic that their work simply comes across as, well, trying too hard. Preachy art is dull art.

As is often the case, a still life of a peeled lemon, or a landscape of birch trees or a portrait of an old man can bring across greater depth of spirituality than all the flash and laboured religiosity of many (most) of the deliberately religious contemporary art out there.

Here, I think, is another case of unconsciously spiritual art.



~

3 comments:

BillyHW said...

Amen.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this. I'm saving this post, because I'd like my daughter to learn to draw properly and there's nowhere her that she could learn it.

MargoB said...

Hilary,

Your comment about "labored religiosity" and thoughts about how those who aren't trying to be religious/preachy often succeed at showing/revealing the deeper/deepest spiritual truths reminded me of this: http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/once-upon-a-time

I don't know if you've ever seen it -- it's an American TV show by ABC that, by telling its story/ies well, has consistently shown quite clearly many deep spiritual truths. Better than a LOT of art-called-Christian that I've seen.