Blessed are those that Hunger and Thirst for righteousness.
2005 Oil on Linen 750 x 1050mm $4500
The mount is a place of hardship – with the best views in the world. It is a place of high bitter winds, fire ravished ridgelines and scorching shade less sun. With little soil and that sandy, the trees are shaped by hardness, bent over, struggling toward the light.
This tree hungers after righteousness – the light. It is seeking life as it reaches desperately for the late afternoon sun counterbalanced by its long and many roots which in thirst reach over the rocks and plunge down a mere crack to gather scant water. The soil long washed away, perhaps caused by the cliff face collapsing, has left an amazing balancing act of survival.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matt 5:6
Unfortunately the tree was destroyed some years later when a 4WD enthusiast hooked it up and snapped it off in an act of senseless vandalism.
This is the first completed work from a new group of paintings which take their metaphoric inspiration from the Beatitudes. These were proclaimed by Jesus as a part of his sermon on the mount as recorded in Matthews Gospel. This painting is also a part of the Figure in Landscape series although other works in this group move away from the single tree in portrait format.