Commission: 'Charles de Foucauld', by the Church of the Holy Paraclete, Providence, RI

As mentioned below, I'd like to share with you a recently completed commissioned piece. I don't normally share such work publicly, due to the private nature of most commissioned pieces, portraits, etc. However, due to the public nature of the subject in this work, I thought prudent to do otherwise. This painting was commissioned by Fr. Jakob-Lazarus of the Church of the Holy Paraclete in Providence, RI. The subject in the work is Bl. Charles de Foucauld, a French Catholic priest who spent years living amongst the Tuareg of the Sahara in Algeria. He was martyred in 1916 and beatified by the Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. Fr. Jakob felt that my style coincided perfectly with his vision for a modern icon. I have to admit that I was very excited getting to work on such a project; brought up in a Catholic household I'd obviously been versed in religious artwork. I couldn't help but make some historical connotations as well: classical artists in the Medieval and Renaissance periods being frequently commissioned by the Church. Aside from the potential rewards present in working through such a project, completing this painting was rife with difficulties and I ended up spending more time working through them than originally planned. As de Foucauld lived into the modern era and old photographs of him do indeed exist, I couldn't very well stray from some references, but such as they were I was limited. I worked through what I could, however, and was pleased with the results: 

I have worked out a deal wherein Fr. Jakob will have prints available of this piece. If interested you may purchase them through his organization in the near future.