Avila Octave, 2019
oil on marine ply, 60cm x 40 cm x 8
Avila Octave is made up of eight panels that symbolically circumnavigate the Feast Day for Theresa of Avila (October 15th) and the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles/Sukkot (October 14th-20th) during the liturgical calendar focus on beauty that is Trinitytide,
Avila Octave presents a response to Bernini’s Ecstasy of St Teresa and the pivotal moment of the Protestant turn towards secularism (tulips) and the Catholic maintenance of symbolism (lilies) in 17th century painting. Its form and content are intended as a homage to the Christian spirit in the Baroque and a canonical continuum of feminine mysticism stemming back to the Early Church. Both its still life subject matter, gleaned from Opportunity shops, family heirlooms and neighbour’s gardens, and its painting treatment of shadow and light, are offered as metaphor for the luxuriousness of unconditional grace.
The exhibition is now on display in the Transept Gallery, you are welcome to come and view the works during visiting hours. Free Admission.
References:
Song of Songs 4:15 A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.
John 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Dr Sarah Curtis is an Anglican and a Melbourne based painter with a PhD in Social and Environmental Inquiry from the University of Melbourne. Her research interests are the history of Western thought and Judeo-Christianity as manifest in the grand manner of illusion and realism painting traditions with a particular focus on the genesis of women artists and mystics