What Is It to Paint a Saint?

Today’s drawing of Mary Magdalene

I’ve been doing all kinds of drawings of Mary Magdalene, some just fun line drawings, others more elaborate. Some are really bad! But in reality, when I’m drawing for painting, I like to do the kind of drawing where I look for the right line. Over and over.

This is how I find the harmony that I’m looking for when I paint Mary Magdalene.

In this drawing, I left all the lines that led to the final drawing. It has two noses, two mouths, different eyebrows…

What is it to paint a saint? A being of light? Someone that exists through the imagination? It is to allow the presence to emerge through random traces chosen based on intuition.

These are a lot of words for a little drawing. But not a lot of words for describing how Mary Magdalene inspires my art and my life. She is mostly in the pleasure of the creative moment.