Hidden Church 3
Oil on Linen
60 x 50 cm, 23.6 x 19.6 inches
There is something about this little church that keeps me coming back again and again to paint. Logistically speaking, it is easy to get to since it is on the lot next to my home, but that is not the reason I go there. Spiritually speaking I am not Greek Orthodox or anything else for that matter, so I don’t go there for any religious reasons either. Rather it is the way this little structure sits alone and forgotten on the hill, just beneath the massive olive trees that brings me there.
Once upon a time, the church was visited more often, but after the grandmothers and grandfathers passed away, the church fell into the hands of the next generation and now the next. The only people who come are the grandchildren of the original owners. They come maybe 3 times per year.
I guess I feel like I’m keeping it “alive” somehow by going up there to paint it. That somehow, in the act of recreating it on linen, I am pouring some kind of life-presence back into the lonely building….
Be well…..
