Art Show ... Matt Talbot

Matt Talbot - T. Nelson [2016]

Acrylic on canvas

duplicate

(The first unfinished image.)

Narrative:

Matt was said to be an 'undersized, wiry man,' and we know he was a laborer.  I read he wore his working clothes everywhere - so I imagined a jacket and collarless shirt, a bit worn - just as I always depict him.  The difference this time is that I have him balding more than in my other paintings.  There are a couple of early paintings, one by a religious sister, depicting him bald, and I wanted to do so as well.  My composition is spare - a few religious mementos and scraps of paper, upon which it is said Matt would make spiritual notes - a small statue of Our Lady of Lourdes and holy cards of Therese and Catherine of Siena comprise the 'still life' of minutia on the mantel.  Above these, a very small image of OL of Perpetual Help hanging by a string.  Matt stands in front of the tall, narrow tenement mantel, upon which these poor possessions are displayed.  Interrupted in his devotion, clutching a crucifix, he looks out at the viewer.

I tried to imagine him in his 60's now, and made a sort of composite of images of Matt Talbot and my recollection of a young man I met years ago in Lourdes.  



My apologies for bad photography and even worse photo-shop editing.