In preparation for a commissioned line drawing of Leonardo DaVinci’s Last Supper I discovered that he had done several preperatory figure and layout studies before settling on the final arrangement of the twelve apostles.
During a breakout session at a religious studies gathering that I attended a few years ago the group was asked to reflect on a devotional passage. Allowed to sit alone anywhere on the grounds I chose to go outside to consider what meaning the selected words had for me. Before I could even write down any words a picture came into my mind. The inset drawing is what I quickly sketched into my notebook.
Earlier we had been discussing “Sophia” or as some might call her “Mother Earth”. The group leader had shared some artworks that portrayed her as a bulky and solid figure, as if to represent her as something you could count on and find find refuge within.
Perhaps it was the beauty of the sunny day and the light breeze that lifted my long hair off my shoulders as I sat on a large rock in a nearby garden, that lead me to see her as something a little more fragile and tender.
I eventually reworked my original quick sketch into this colored pencil drawing and it will no doubt change a little more before I put the oil paint and brush to the canvas to do the final Mother Earth painting in oil.