I am finally getting around to sharing some recent work with you! The oil painting at the right is one of my newest pieces. The painting shows a little angel statue, which stands as a monument in Bonaventure (meaning Good Fortune) Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia. Girl with the Upturned Shell was sculpted by John Walz.
Pam DeCamp, a photographer, mentions a visit to this beautiful sculpture in a blogpost, "Clearly this person was loved by her family. The care in which the statue was crafted gives one a sense of great grief the family must have felt to lost this child. A loss of a child is tragic. Our children are supposed to outlive us and move forward in life. They have so much to look forward to. The inscription on the monument is from Mark 10:15 Verily I say unto you whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child he shall not enter therein. Powerful words on this monument."
I thought this statue to be very sweet and wanted to include her in a painting. The title is Breath of Life. My thoughts were that perhaps a visitor had piled flowers upon the upturned shell in memory of the child and God has come along and lightly blown on them, causing them to float and giving them life, as it is given to us. I'm curious to hear what you think of when you see this painting. If you have an observation, please feel free to share in the comments below!
The next stop for JS Aitken Art after the collection of paintings are returned from the Beaumont Hospitals is the Ann Arbor Art Festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan. My booth will be located on Maynard near Liberty (# 311). The fair begins on July 18 and lasts through Sunday, July 21. Come on out and see some of my new work! I would love to see you!