Studio Louis: About, religious art, christian art, religious prints

About the Artist and the Work

Studio Louis presents the art and studio practice of Glenn Louis Francis Lowcock.

About the Artist

My childhood years were spent in Wharfedale, a picturesque valley in Yorkshire with small towns bordered by hills of broad open moorland. Growing up in such a place formed in me a real and close connection with the natural world and 'landscape' has remained a source of inspiration ever since.

I always wanted to be a painter and while still in my teens I also became very interested in the materials and techniques of painting. I studied Fine Art Painting at the Central School of Art and Design in London where I completed my degree. The work continued to develop in my ongoing practice and shifted from painting to photography and printmaking, then back again to painting. My work has been broadly exhibited, from private galleries to the Royal Festival Hall in London, as well as galleries in Europe.

I am very fortunate indeed that I now live and work amid the beauty of rural East Sussex. I find the seasonal colours never fail to inspire and always bring a fresh new life to my art.

My work now includes painting, mono-printing and experimental photographic print making. I have also taught Painting and Drawing in Adult Education in Sussex.

It will be apparent from the work shown that the subject matter is faith based and Christian in type. I am a Roman Catholic and a Franciscan, belonging to the Secular Franciscan Order. In other words, a Franciscan who lives in the secular world within a framework of Franciscan Fraternity.

St Francis is, I find, a perfect example for our lives today. His is a way of love and praise for our Creator while witnessing to God's presence in all living things.

I hope that in some small way these works may help bring us closer in our lives to the heart of God.

About the Work

Being interested in art as well as the history of art I always try to visit galleries wherever I travel. Galleries provide a wonderful opportunity to view some of the greatest paintings in the world and they are open to everyone.

However, while galleries show paintings which once belonged to wealthy and powerful patrons they also keep great collections of pictures created in support of people's faith and for the glory of God. Until the last century these would have been displayed in the churches and cathedrals of Europe and were a part of people's everyday lives but now, being held in the great national collections and museums, they can no longer play their part as Christian images. Churches and believers have little choice but to use printed reproductions of images while the historic originals are held safe but apart, presented to gallery visitors as valuable artefacts from our historic past.

But today as ever before, art and faith remain intrinsically linked. At the heart of Christianity is the message that God became man in the real and living person of Jesus. God entered into the world in which we live and so all things in the world were graced.¹ We hear and see and feel the presence of God not only through our inner spiritual lives but also through the senses that receive the life of the world around us.² Christianity is a faith that dwells in the world and images are an important if not crucial way of conveying this reality.³

In this way art can be seen to have a clear parallel to the written word. Religious imagery shows the Word of God as being physically present in the world and so helps us to see the divine and the worldly as but differing faces of the same universal pattern.⁴

This is the context of the work presented here. Each painting is based upon an existing historic work and is developed in such a way that the essence and dignity of the original is retained. It is not however a matter of slavishly copying the source image but is about making a re-reading of it in order to create an effective transcription. The task is to present again the historic iconic original in a way that old and new are combined, allowing the image to speak afresh to a new audience in a new time.

This approach is somewhat different from that of much contemporary art as the intention is not so much seeking 'newness' in and of itself but is about re-investing existing forms with a new voice. It is about 'making new' what has been central to this kind of art for centuries, and is a practice which dates back to before the 8th century. This was the Age of Iconoclasm when the Byzantine Emperor Leo III had banned the religious use of images and it became a crucial moment for the way we have regarded imagery ever since. It was at this time that the monk St John of Damascus, living in a monastery in the Judean Desert, wrote very persuasively for the continued use of sacred imagery. St John maintained that art is an effective tool by which the spirit of God may be conveyed, but also that art is created within a context; and this for St John was the language of Church Tradition⁵. While the role of the artist is to bring to the work something personal of his own, the work itself is to be painted and made as in the spirit of a humble copyist. In the making of an image the personal and the social, the individual and the collective are conceptually brought together.

All the paintings shown here are based on works which belong to that body of historical and heartfelt images which in some way we already ’know’ yet, galleries apart, we no longer live amongst. They properly belong at home both in the sacred buildings we visit and in the places of our everyday lives, and I hope these paintings may make this just a little more possible.

Footnotes
1. As explained by St John of Damascus in Treatise 1, Paragraph 16 of ‘Three Treatises on the Divine Images’:
"Of old, God the incorporeal and formless was never depicted, but now that God has been seen in the flesh and has associated with human kind, I depict what I have seen of God. I do not venerate matter, I venerate the fashioner of the matter, who became matter for my sake and accepted to dwell in matter and through matter worked my salvation, and I will not cease from reverencing matter, through which my salvation was worked."
Translated by Andrew Louth, published by St Vladimir’s Seminary Press 2003

2. "What the book does for those who understand letters, the image does for the illiterate; the word appeals to hearing, the image appeals to sight; it conveys understanding."

From ‘Three Treatises on the Divine Images’ by St John of Damascus Treatise 1, Paragraph 17, translated by Andrew Louth and published by St Vladimir’s Seminary Press 2003

3. "In the minds of some people, art is simply a kind of decoration, a secondary thing. But the Orthodox understanding of the nature of the human being, of how God has made us, how God has revealed Himself to us, is that material creation is very much involved. ...It involves the whole man. It involves the material creation. In fact, the Incarnation - the entry of God into the material world, God becoming man, God becoming matter - is uniquely at the heart of the Christian Faith."
"Art is, by definition, the use of material things as a medium for the revelation of God. So for the Orthodox, art is not icing on the cake; it is something very central to what we know of how God has revealed Himself to us."

4. The story of how St Francis heard the call of God is interesting to note:
"...(Francis) was walking one day by the church of San Damiano, which was abandoned and almost in ruins. Led by the Spirit he went in to pray and knelt down devoutly before the crucifix. ...As soon as he had this feeling, there occurred something unheard of in previous ages: with the lips of the painting, the image of Christ crucified spoke to him. “Francis”, it said, calling him by name, “go rebuild My house; as you see, it is all being destroyed”. Francis was more than a little stunned, trembling, and stuttering like a man out of his senses. He prepared himself to obey and pulled himself together to carry out the command. He felt this mysterious change in himself, but he could not describe it. So it is better for us to remain silent about it too."

From the First Book, chapter IV, of ‘The Remembrance of the Desire of a Soul’ by Thomas of Celano 1245-1247, compiled in ‘Francis of Assisi Early Documents Volume II’ Published by New City, London 1999.

Francis heard Christ speak to him from a painted Crucifix, but the full meaning of this event became clear when he opened the gospels of the San Niccolo Missal (then in Assisi). On reading from the book the gospel came to life and in a very real way Francis could with certainty proclaim: “This is what I want!” and the Saint began his work. In other words, the image informed the word, and the word became clear in the image.

5. The word ‘tradition’ comes from the Latin 'traditio', which is a translation of a Greek word frequently used in scripture: 'paradosis'. Literally translated this word means something that is handed on from one person to another. …St Paul clarifies (Gal 1:11) that the Tradition of the Church is “not according to man”. In other words, it is revealed by God. ...Tradition is in this sense the living out of the revelation of God by His people.