Prophetic Jesus – Watercolor

Description

Prophetic Jesus was a painting I did on stage in bad light while a woman friend of mine preached to a gathering of women. I had a dream of colors spilling down on Jesus’ face from the top edge in streams. I did a preliminary drawing for the face. For the watercolor paint, I used the already mixed watercolors applied with droppers, like old medicine droppers.

One must work so fast on stage, and in terrible light, so I thought that would be an excellent way to do watercolors on stage, as they are already wet, and it would cut down on the prep time it would take to keep adding water to each color each time.

The drips or rivulets seeping down on the head suggested the blood of Jesus spilled for us; also, its coming down from heaven suggested the gift that it was. It is a quite scary picture in some ways. Scripture says Jesus’ face was marred more than any man’s. I like that the face portrays a muscular, Jewish Jesus, one serious and intent as blood falls from heaven, as if the experience was planned and is now past. It is not your sentimental church Jesus, but a radical one, a coming Christ, and therefore, the title.