My Easter Artpiece

Last month I was busy working on an art piece for my church's Good Friday program.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was one of several artists asked to create my own interpretation of a particular part of the Easter story.  I was working on "Jesus was nailed to the cross."



My painting of Jesus Nailed to the Cross



I began by decoupaging strips of telephone book papers to the canvas with matte medium,
until I had covered the entire canvas.
The telephone pages represent that Jesus died for everyone,



Happily creating!!



 




Once I had covered the canvas with telephone book pages, I gessoed (an acrylic paint primer) over all of it, wiping off some of the gesso so the words could show through.  I also added and gessoed some of the "ugly" words in black on the bottom of the canvas, that describe man's sinful nature.
There is a great abyss that separates man from God.

I added (and gessoed) words describing the attributes of Jesus, in red, to the top of the canvas

next, using acrylic paint, I rough-painted the form of Jesus.

Christ is the mediator between God and man.  Only He can stand in the gap.
He took upon Himself ALL of the sins which man had committed in the past...
...were committing as He hung on the cross...
and ALL of the sins we would commit in the future,
All the sins of all the Adams, the Jezibels, the Gingus Khans, the Hitlers, the nice old ladies across the street,
all the murders, stealing, lying, disrespecting, prideful lusting, the forsaking and denial of God...
Every transgression of every human being past present future,
Only Christ is the spotless, perfect sacrafice.
Our sins are covered by the blood of His sacrafice.
Amen

I added more detail

I finished off the highlighting, shadows and bordered the painting with distress ink.



The finished piece at church.