Ezra 7:10 Triptych

The finished triptych hanging on the wall at Ascend Church, Rotorua, NZ. This commission was worked around a verse from the Holy Bible, Ezra 7:10, which speaks of seeking the Way of the Lord, doing it, and teaching it to others. The explanation of each individual painting is with its individual photo. The reason for the different styles is because I generally favor realism and very precise work, but the church leader who commissioned the work wanted at least one of them to be more abstract. The stained glass was as close to abstract as my brain would go at the time. I planned to do the third painting in the same style as the first, but by the time I got to painting it (over a year later), the detailed landscape idea wasn't working. A series of meetings at the church provided inspiration to do with the teaching aspect that was quite different from what I had been thinking of earlier, and these ideas combined with greater confidence in my own own ability plus my wanting to just get the jolly thing finished, produced a much looser style! I dashed it off in 2 or 3 hours compared to the 80 hours that went into the first one.