Dimensions: 30x17cm
Painted: 2009
Materials: Acrylic on MDF board
Private collection
The story behind Jesus
This small portrait was painted in a single day — twelve hours — as a gift for a friend. The subject is Jesus Christ, depicted here in robes of extraordinary color and pattern, arms open, light radiating behind him. The friend it was made for took one look at it and didn’t want it. It was gratefully accepted by a devout Christian instead, which seems like the right outcome.
The description applied to this painting is deliberate: Jesus as the first communist. Not in the Marxist sense — Marxism is a perversion of the idea of community — but in the original sense. He preached community at every turn. He had little patience for the accumulation of wealth. The position is not subtle:
Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you; it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Whether this painting qualifies as strict photorealism is debatable. It is painterly in places. But the intent — and the company it keeps in my oeuvre — is clear enough.
Source image of realism painting Jesus
