About
The motto that inspired the theme of this forum comes from a picture I inherited. It shows a coat of arms said to be that of the family of my paternal great grandmother. According to a little slip of paper taped to the back, “Coelum Non Solum”, which means “Heaven, Not Earth” in Latin, also means “What is Noble, Not What is Base”, and this has turned out to characterize what became my own aspiration.
I am Melville Holmes, sometimes known regionally as the “Artist-in-Residence” of the historic Davenport Hotel in Spokane, Washington. (This is not because I live there but because I have had so much to do with all the aesthetic and decorative aspects of the renovation.) But my main career “calling” was that of doing “new paintings like those of the Old Masters.”
This blog (what a funny word), which I tentatively began on Christmas Day, 2007, has been a place to begin to express my own thoughts on how my paintings came about, their “stories”. Likely it will evolve into other areas . . .
The paintings have been posted in no particuar sequence.
December 29, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Hi Melville,
Please feel free to delete this after you read it. I’ve been following your discussions at simplechurch.com, and offer the following for consideration…
Isaiah 65:17-25
The state of the Church during the millennium
The Biblical Illustrator Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006
God Bless!
Rick
June 27, 2009 at 11:52 am
Melville,
I am delighted by your blog. Your paintings are beautiful. Even though I live in Texas, I take pride in my Washington residence of Seattle in the decade of the 1970’s.
Your site has touched me because my heart is knit towards art, even though all my writings are on church and culture. I tried reading your theory of art letter, but since it was specifically written for an author, I quit reading about half way down.
I have a draft that is unfinished on the Poetry of God’s Soul. Beauty is an inherent characteristic of God Himself. God is an aesthete. He delights in beauty, and everything He has made is beautiful.
I have read some books on the philosophy of aesthetics, but they leave God out of the discussion. I found an article on biblical aesthetics which is a good resource on verses in the Bible regarding beauty, but it fell short of my own question of beauty: what is the essence of beauty in God’s heart? And what does God expect from us as artists in our creativity? Function and beauty are intrinsically bound together in God’s creation.
By the way, regarding the issue of representational painting and the advent of photography, the love of paintings and the intention of painters, in my opinion, has little to do with the accuracy of representation and more to the artist’s ability to touch the spirit of man and life through the brush strokes. We all know that there is more to life than what meets the eye, and straight photography can not capture that. Of course, there are many great photographers who are also artists who have used the medium to capture a glimpse of life beyond the visible. But the great art of history has continued into the modern era of technology because of this expression of the human spirit.
And so this brings up another point: what role and responsibility do Christians have in the arts? Francis Schaeffer addressed this in his wonderful video series and book, “How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture”. To simplify the answer in that we should glorify God is not enough. As Christians we are to share life in art in all its beauty and horror (due to the Fall) from the eternal perspective of His priorities.
Neither does a message have to be made all the time. To enjoy beauty for beauty’s sake is often enough, too.
Melville, I would love to dialog further on this topic. Meeting an artist who is devoted to understand God and His creation is delightful. You have deep thoughts on the Lord and His Church, and I would love to explore your thoughts on the Lord and His Creation from an aesthetic point of view.
July 2, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Thank you for your great comment, Alex. I would like to talk more with you about these things as well.
It was interesting that you mentioned Francis Schaeffer because I had recently been thinking about him and his influence and legacy.
I had looked up his son, Frank Schaeffer’s thoughts about his father and his views on art and Western culture, and the tension between his love of art and his disagreement with the secular humanism of the Renaissance that made man the center of everything apart from God. This called back to mind the private conversation I had with Francis Schaeffer in his chalet in Switzerland in 1980 where we talked about these very things. That got me wanting to write about that and where I went forward from there in my pursuit of painting, but I haven’t had the time yet. Your post is an encouragement that maybe it would be worth sitting down to do it.
Thanks again.
June 27, 2009 at 6:21 pm
I concur with Alex. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto.