Handclasp on a Silent Night

Handclasp on a Silent Night 16x20"

The Christmas Truce of 1914, after six months of fighting in WWI, seems almost the stuff of literature or films. That opposing forces would lay down their arms, sing carols and meet in no-man's land, to shake hands, exchange small gifts of tobacco and food during the bloodiest conflict of the 20th century was truly a miracle.

I prepped the canvas with gesso, cheesecloth and texture from plastic cris-crossed netting. The background colours are Golden's Sap Green Hue, Van Dyke Brown and Ceramcoat's Toffee Brown, and these colours were also used to splatter the surface. I tinted the Xerox copies of the meeting soldiers and the handclasp with Portfolio Water Soluble Oil Pastels in Russet and Blue-Green, and adhered them with matte medium.

The simple Christmas Trees were stenciled (and masked) on with the Sap Green and smaller evergreens were stamped using Staz-On black ink. Golden's Quinacridone Crimson was stenciled on through punchinello and oil pastels were used to highlight bits of the cheesecloth. Liquitex Titanium White was splattered on representing the snow that covered the trenches during that Christmas week 97 years ago.

The final touch, a few globs of Golden's Iridescent Gold Deep Fine to show the shining light that broke through the horror of war for a brief period of good will to men.

The piece will be included in my upcoming show The Pity of War, this April at the Allied Arts Gallery in Cambria.