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I was introduced
to one of John Reilly’s
paintings by this blog
:
subscribe with an
email address for
a daily dose of
biblical
art
!!!
(Thanks, Father Patrick)
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OK, back to John Reilly
…
Here are two of his earlier works
:
Cain and Abel
1958
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The Feeding of the Five Thousand
1958
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Soon he began using a
type of geometric
form in his
designs
:
The Healing of the Lunatic Boy
1958
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…
which evolved
into more a consistent
style that is difficult
to describe
.
I do not illustrate
Bible stories literally, as
I am not interested in the
places or people, but try
to express what I feel is
the deeper significance
of each story for every
individual through-
out all time
.
John Reilly
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Here are
a few examples;
most of them using
brightly-faceted figures
on a structure of circles
and radial lines
:
Crucifixion
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.
Green Pastures
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Healing
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The Way
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Refuge
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No Parting
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Those were shown
in alphabetical order
because I couldn’t find
dates for them
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Here are two pages
from John’s original website
where he describes the
process he used
:
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The link is
no longer working,
but I found those on the
Internet Wayback Machine
which captures and stores
historical websites
.
Here is
the best image
I could find of the
example painting
:
Watchful Shepherd
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In putting this
online exhibit together,
I began thinking about how
many historical artworks have
yet to be added to the internet,
for future generations to enjoy
.
It’s disturbing to me that
at a certain point in history this
artist’s work was available on the
internet, but after his death his
website lapsed, putting his
life’s work out of reach
for most people
.
I’m trying to
preserve
what I
can
.
(sometimes I feel
like a librarian)
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One More
This might be his
most popular and
enduring work
:
The Miraculous Draught of Fishes
1978
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John Reilly
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John had many other similar paintings,
but I couldn’t find good images of them
.
If you know of other online sources,
showing images that aren’t ruined
with watermarks, please leave
a comment below
:
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The icon for this
article is a detail from
John Reilly’s painting
‘The Struggle’
:
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