Paint Out Saturday August 26th - Cathedral of St Raymond's - Joliet

WHAT: The Cathedral of St Raymond, Joliet, Illinois

St. Ray's is a quite magnificent Cathedral, built in the 50's.    It has some architectural uniquenesses and occupies nearly a full city block.   We have permission to work inside from many vantage points, or outside also from many vantage points of gardens around the Church and a covered cloister garden adjacent to the body of the Church itself.

I TOLD THEM WE ARE QUIET AS CHURCH MICE.

There is parking in a lot to the North of the Church.  There are facilities within the Church.    

You can check out their website:

http://www.straymond.net/


This is an image (severely cropped) that I took from the wedding of a friend awhile back. It gives a thumbnail of just the altar to suggest scale.





WHEN: SATURDAY AUGUST 26TH AT 8:30 AM. TO 12:30 PM CRITIQUE.


WHY:

In the late 60's I attended a show of the works of a then promising young artist, Richard Schmid.   Though I couldn't afford any of the paintings, the works left a vivid impression.    I remembered one in particular.   It was a small painting, the result I was told, of a trip to Europe.    It was of a side altar/grotto in a small church -- old stone walls, and candles burning vividly in the red votary.   I could almost hear the gritty sound of shoes along the stone floor and smell the traces of incense in the air.   That simple, small two dimensional image had the power to transport me to the place of that side altar.    

Nearly two decades went by and during a break in a Saturday morning  portrait class I was doing with Clayton Beck, CJ, at the Palette & Chisel, I mentioned the strength of that painting, the experience and that memory to him.   He said he knew exactly the image I was referring to and took me to his locker to get a slide of it.    Lo,   there was the beautiful church interior -- and even in the form of the small transparency, it still had the power to transport.    

Since first seeing that image, I have understood the potential of the interiors of churches as subjects.   Certainly the hands of a great artist make a profound difference.    But, the setting is also one that intrinsically holds meaning.    A church -- a holy place, whether an edifice, or a canyon --  is a place where generations have moved in procession  through the ceremonies and passages of life -- where they have been pulled along via the greatest source of our strength as humans -- the ability to believe in something beyond  -- and thus, the ability to hope.   In such places reside the spirit of the human condition, represented each day by the burning of a votive, or the sun creating dust beams as it enters through stained glass windows.  

SO --- Folks,   I thought that these places should/could be added to our places to paint -- places where perhaps the spirits gather and where those spirits can be invited to take our brushes and use our hands to paint themselves.    

I thought a good place to begin (to help us to gain access to other places in our future endeavors) was a Cathedral -- establishes a good precedence.

Thus,    our first 'holy place' paint out site is scheduled this Saturday,  August 26th at the Cathedral of St Raymond's the home of the Joliet Catholic Diocese.  

There are many such holy places in the SouthWest suburbs of Chicago -- Synagogues, Mosques, Temples, Chapels, grottos, old and new.     Please act as Scouts for others for us.

AND BECAUSE IT MIGHT RAIN SATURDAY -- NICE TO BE INSIDE.


WHERE:

St. Raymond's is located at 604 North Raynor Avenue in Joliet. We can gather at the Parking Lot to the North of the building at 8:30 AM --- free parking. Paste in the following line to get the Google map.

http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=Cathedral+Of+St+Raymond,+Joliet,+IL


Looking forward to seeing you all......


Rita R