#plunge

I was excited to be asked to contribute to the baptism series in the run up to Pentecost at St George’s Church Leeds.  Knowing the #plunge board would be up for the duration of the series, I wanted to capture some of the different areas the Vicar would be teaching on and for the project to ‘grow’ as the teaching developed week by week without trying to squeeze all of the verses and ideas onto the one board.  Consequently, I decided to add a new painting each week.

The board itself, was painted to mimic a splash, but done entirely with hand and fingerprints.  This represented the idea that if anyone is coming to baptism / has been baptised then it is a result of the hand of God being on their life.   Each of the canvases added through the series also had these fingerprints on them too to bind and unite the whole series.

The following titles and verses were given to me by the Vicar which then aided my thinking process:

Plunged into Christ – 1 Peter 3:21, Galatians 3:27
I wanted to capture the ‘clear conscience’ talked about in 1 Peter 3:21.  I used the whites, yellows and gold to represent this.
The words ‘clothed with Christ’ were then selected from Galatians 3:27 echoing the idea that was taught about us ‘piggybacking’ on Jesus’ baptism.

Plunged into the Spirit – Matthew 3:11, Acts 2:38
The obvious starting point from these verses was the Holy Spirit.
It is my hope that this painting captures something of the vibrancy, life, passion, boldness, movement and flow of the Holy Spirit.

Plunged into one body – 1 Corinthians 12:13

I used circles in this week’s painting to represent unity, the coming together and linking of the church as one body.
I feel that purple represents royalty – acknowledging that by the One Spirit, we are part of God’s royal family – sons or daughters of the King.

Plunged into death and resurrection – Mark 10:38, Luke 12:50, Romans 6:4

Greens were an obvious choice for this painting as I wanted to capture the new life discussed in Romans 6:4.
However, knowing that the title for this week was about being plunged into both death and resurrection, it was important to have the cross represented, with red symbolising Jesus’ blood, but also the triumphant gold running through the centre representing his resurrection.

Pentecost – Acts 2:3-4a
In a similar way to the second week of the series about being plunged into the Holy Spirit, I wanted this painting to represent the coming of the Spirit, but also to really stand out from the other canvases.
I used metallics, fluorescent colours, glitter and varnish so that the light would bounce and reflect off the painting, symbolising ‘life’.

Each of the individual paintings from this series are for sale. Clearer photos can be found on the Home Page with a separate entry for each canvas.

If you are interested in a larger project or series of paintings then do get in touch via the Commissions page.