Introduction

The paintings in this exhibit were all painted in France where, since 2006, I have been teaching a course called “The Creative Process” in a study abroad program at an Abbey in the Loire Valley.

Each of them refers to a passage in the Old Testament. I chose to call them “Illuminations,” because that is what we call the illustrations in the handmade bibles monks created in such abbeys during the middle ages.

Six of them refer to the first six of days of creation [the painting referring to the seventh day is on exhibit at the Woodward Gallery in New York City and is entitled “Sabbath”]. They were all painted in the Abbey for an exhibit I had there in the summer of the 2008.

The other four were painted in my studio in France during the summer of 2014. This explains why they are stylistically somewhat different from the other six although they are thematically similar.

It is my intention that each of the paintings stand on its own, however, because each is an expression of what I feel when I meditate on certain passages of the ancient scriptures which have not ceased to inspire deep thought for thousands of years. I want them all to be, in the words of Thomas Merton, “Seeds of Contemplation.” They are private interpretations which hopefully might take the viewer’s eye and mind for a walk beyond the here and now.