Tag: Bible Art

Bible art / Bar Mitzvah gift ideas - Original Jewish art - Parshat Teruma - a painting showing the bringing of gifts for the MishkanWhy Bible Art?

I make my Bible art in a world where the mainstream art world is often so very distant from any considerations of beauty or spirituality. Making Biblical artwork began, for me, as a very personal artistic and spiritual exercise. It eventually developed into an educational project, and now, it seems, is slowly returning to its source as a more spiritual and artistic endeavour, trying to engender connections with underlying meanings in the Bible.

Use of Colour in my Biblical Paintings

Colour is key in my Bible art prints. I use a lot of bright colours but my mainstay is cerulean blue in various levels of saturation. These blues symbolise the sky, the sea and the Eternal. It is for me the most spiritual colour, and thus the most hopeful and the most joyous. Counterbalancing that, I often use orange and reddish hues. These symbolise the earth, the desert, the Sinai itself; the very place from where the Bible originates. Oranges and reds are the colours of fire, of power, of authority, and of the harsh realities of this earthly life. Our task in life is to bridge between the ethereal blues and the burning oranges, and for that we have all the colours in between!

The Spiritual Significance of Colour

Some theoreticians and artists have written on the deeper meaning of colour. Of particular note are: Vassily Kandinsky, Margarethe Hauschka, and Rudolf Steiner. (Personally I do find them interesting, but it’s really important not to take them too seriously!)

Noah – Biblical relief sculpture

Biblical relief sculpture showing Noah and the Dove.

This Biblical relief sculpture, Noah and the Dove, is made of a light-coloured clay (called Yellow Terrazzo), with an inlay of smoked glass. Many of the elements are finished with acrylic paint. (See my post from September, showing how it was made).The design is simple, primitive, direct and, I hope, powerful. The motif of the […]

Pilgrimage painting

Contemporary Biblical Art. Landscape painting with desert valley at dawn. Pilgrimage to holy river. Twelve tribes

Pilgrimage: A Biblical Painting This imaginary Biblical painting tells a story: Once a year, pilgrims visit this most secret and sacred valley of the desert, where veins of gold run through the rock, symbolizing eternal wisdom and the divine (אלוקות). Each of the Twelve Tribes is represented, wearing variations of their tribal colours and, between […]

Noah art – work in progress

Noah art, Noah and the Dove, contemporary Biblical art,

Showing stages in the creation of a new ceramic wall sculpture, 28cm x 25cm. It’ll be finished with coloured glazes. Looking forward to showing you the finished product soon….  

Ceramic wall sculpture

Ceramic wall sculpture: Man and Tree. A contemporary Ancient Biblical wall-relief sculpture.

This small ceramic wall sculpture (13.5 x 18cm) shows a Biblical patriarch and a palm tree. It has been fired once, and is coloured with acrylic, giving a matt, non-shiny finish. The man’s staff is picked out in applied gold leaf. There are more of my ceramic works on my dedicated Ceramic Sculpture page. If you’re […]

New archaeological art: Mini-reliefs under way

I’m currently working on these two small relief sculptures in clay. Shown here before firing and before colouring, they will eventually be terracotta red clay, with colour and gold leaf applied. Approximately 15cm wide, they are intended to be wall-hung. 

New Black Moses

Biblical sculpture: Moses ceramic sculpture

I’ve just completed a new ancient Biblical sculpture. My New Black Moses stands 31.5cm high and is made of black fired clay with touches of a dark metallic underglaze. The inspiration for this type of formal, standing figure comes from the ancient sculpture of Mesopotamia. The (linked) article from the Metropolitan Museum’s website describes this […]

Finding new life in an old painting – a Biblical scene.

biblical scene - detail 3

The subject is an undefined Biblical scene, in the Land of Israel. Since it is made up of different layers which have accumulated over a few years of painting and re-painting, the canvas itself has started to take on something of an archaeological character. It’s an unresolved picture. I’m aiming to bring it alive now […]

Rediscovered High Priest Painting

Recently I rediscovered this, rolled up and covered in dust, in my store-room: A painting of a High Priest. Based on an etching of a turbaned gentleman in Egypt, by the wonderful Mexican artist Francisco Zuniga (1912 – 1998), I abandoned it several years ago – possibly because I didn’t know how to deal with […]

Art gift for Rosh Hashana

This original piece of Jewish art would make a beautiful and very special Rosh Hashana gift, celebrating the seven species described in Parshat Ekev. Prominent among them, in my picture, is the pomegranate. The midrash describes this fruit as having 613 seeds, corresponding to the number of mitzvot in the Torah. This is a decorative […]