A recent digital painting of pink, white and yellow tulips. I get so much joy each year when the tulips emerge. 
Space( )Between art exhibit illuminated calligraphy, stage 3: applying gold acrylic ink to border and initial capital
The next stage after painting in the watercolour portions was to start filling in all the vines in the border and the inside of the initial capital letter with Liquitex acrylic gold ink. I had to do a couple layers as this was a bit thin in texture. I need to experiment more with different types of gold paint in the future. I’m not to the level of gold leaf yet but admire those who can manage it.
Space( )Between art exhibit illuminated calligraphy, stage 2: finishing drawing the border and starting to paint in watercolour
Continuing on from the Stage 1 post for this piece, I show you now what the border drawing looked like when all filled in. In the two subsequent photos you’ll see the colour being gradually added, using Winsor & Newton watercolours. I wanted to give each ‘direction’ in the Psalm its own colour variation. The top is light blue to represent heaven, the bottom is a murky black-blue to represent Sheol. The left is the rosy-tinted East and the right is the slightly more orange-toned red. The ‘flame’ pattern at the bottom also hints at Sheol.
Transept ‘Space( )Between’ art exhibit calligraphy piece, stage 1
This April (April 15-18, 2019) the Transept Artists’ group of the University of St Andrews Institute of Theology, Imagination and the Arts is putting on its annual exhibition. This year’s theme is ‘Space( )Between’, based on Holy Saturday but also more generally exploring the in-between places and states of being we all experience. I am part of Transept this year, despite not being a student in ITIA and have thoroughly enjoyed my time with this group.
When thinking about which Scripture passages I could use to go along with this theme, I decided upon a portion of Psalm 139 which describes the infinite space that God’s presence occupies and also mentions hell (Sheol). It encompasses the upmost heights and the deepest lows.
I decided to go with an elaborate illuminated calligraphy piece and over a few posts I’ll be showing you the progress of the work.
Orange, Cinnamon & Pine Cone Wreath
One day in December a couple years ago, I was passing by a home furnishing store in my town and noticed a gorgeous natural wreath made with dried oranges and cinnamon sticks. It really caught my eye and I went home to find a reference photo and start a digital painting of it. Here is the result.
1 Corinthians 13 Illuminated Calligraphy
Sketches of horses grazing
