The Meaning

This piece is about simply being in the presence of God and Son without condition. Up top, notice the finger of God lighting up the tree. The Son is at the bottom holding the light of his relationship with Him in his hands. The spirits of Mary and Joseph look on from the left and the right of the tree. The Dove of the Holy Spirit is directly above her. Some of the fiery angels carry lanterns to the top of the tree. The lanterns illuminate the tree and the angels represent the light of Christ that they experience.

The Process

I started this piece by examining many different trees from national parks, especially on the west coast of North America. Then I began to sketch the outline of the tree and started to darken the outline of it with burnt umber and spectrum black oil paints. The branches and leaves of the tree are layered with three different greens without an outline. The finger tip of God and the Son in the manger are then sketched and outlined in the same way. I used the wiping technique in between the grain lines of the tree with a couple of different browns mixed together. The ghostly angels were done with the inspiration of many different renaissance ceiling paintings from castles that I saw in Vienna, Austria and Prague, Czech Republic, while visiting in the fall 2025.