by David Clayton on May 17, 2013
Two years ago, I wrote a feature on the American artist Carl Schmitt (1889-1989). What has prompted me to look at his work again is the publication of a beautiful book of his work called Carl Schmitt, The Vision of Beauty. Schmitt was a classically trained American artist who was a friend of Hilaire Belloc, who [...]
by David Clayton on October 15, 2012
The model of loving compassion for others who are suffering. September the 15th was the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. I found the liturgy of the Church on this day very instructive and inspirational. The message I get from this is for me, powerful, vigorous and inspiring. The writing of St Paul and St [...]
by David Clayton on September 18, 2012
When I decided I wanted to be an artist, I knew that I needed to train, but I had no idea where to go. I was so clueless that I started by looking for Catholic Art School under ‘C’ in the telephone directory. Pretty quickly I realised that no such place existed and as I [...]
by David Clayton on August 21, 2012
The Office of Readings for July 30th, the Feast of St Peter Chrysologus contains the following passage from one of his sermons: ‘Man, why do you have so low an opinion of yourself, when you are so precious to God?…Has not the household of the whole universe which you see been made for you? For [...]
by David Clayton on June 8, 2012
Or…do you need to see people in the nude in order to paint them with their clothes on? In commenting on recent article someone based what they were saying on an assumption that in order to paint the human figure well, the artist needs to understand anatomy. He was referring to a naturalistic drawing method [...]
by David Clayton on April 12, 2012
A comparison of the baroque naturalism of Alonso Cano and the baroque classicism of Anton Mengs After last week’s comparison of two paintings of Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem, this week as an Easter meditation I offer something similar, but this time each painting is of the scene when Mary Magdalen sees Christ in the garden [...]
by David Clayton on April 2, 2012
The baroque naturalism of Van Dyck and the baroque classicism of Orente compared. We are now in Holy Week. To help our contemplation, here are two different paintings of the Palm Sunday scene – Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem. Both are by 17th century painters from the heyday of the baroque period. The first is by [...]
by David Clayton on February 10, 2012
This short posting, which focusses on the symbolic content in a painting is written by Dr Caroline Farey of the Maryvale Institute. She and I work as a double team, teaching in July at the residential weekend of the one-year distance-learning course about Catholic art and culture called Art, Beauty and Inspiration in a Catholic [...]
