A few weeks ago I joined another painting group PAPA Preserving A Picturesque America. I mentioned it in my post More about S’s, and shared are trip to St. James Church in historic Goose Creek, SC. I was really struck by the regal-ness of the building and how much care had been put into building it and restoring it. My favorite part was how God’s word was written on the walls. The stone tablet on the left side is the 10 commandments and the right side is the Lords prayer and Apostles Creed.
After taking several pictures trying to capture the vantage point of the original artist from the 1800’s, I decided that the original artist took some artistic license in their design. I was told that the artist sat in the second box pew on the left. From that box, the angle seemed right, but the view of the little wooden umbrella roof thing only showed the underside.
I popped all over the church taking picture here and there. From the balcony I could view the top of the umbrella roof (I should check what it is called) but not the underside. If I backed up in the isle, I got a good view of it, but I wasn't at the correct angle.
Eventually, I decided I could cheat a little on my perspective and invent a world where you can see everything the way I wanted. My angle ended up being a little more head on. I like the way the little pineapple at the top is centered with the English crest and the lion and unicorn. In a world with more accurate perspective, my stone plaques on either side of the pulpit would have been much shorter. I thought they lost their impact when depicted strictly as they appeared in my photos. In person, the grand scale is very impressive. The giant slabs with the beautifully etched scripture create a sense of holiness. You are quite literally surrounded by God’s word.
So maybe I didn’t do the best job recreating the image from the original vantage point of the 1800’s artist, but I did my best. My pen sketch took awhile. I was so content with it, I almost considered leaving it. Then I remembered how much I was looking forward to painting the walls with soft washes and having the reds and blues pop boldly. I think I completed my version of the interior of the ancient church. I took pictures at different phases so you could see it come together. Here is my painted piece. What do you think?
Lofty Heights