Daniel Mitsui, whose blog The Lion and Cardinal is doing a series of interviews of contemporary Catholic artists. He recently spoke to me about the practical process of creating art (which you can access here). The interview probed me, quite deeply, on how I approach painting – the attitudes I feel I must adopt, prayer, and how to draw on tradition discerningly. He also reproduced a few of my paintings for any who are interested. The homepage of Daniel’s blog, the Lion and the Cardinal, is here.
And, while we’re on lions and cardinals, the picture, is a detail of the 15th century painting (by Italian artist, Colantonio) of St Jerome removing the thorn from the lion’s paw (a medieval tradition). St Jerome was not a cardinal (there weren’t any all until three centuries after he died) but he is one of the great Fathers of the Church and a Doctor of the Church. So we can assume that if there had been any when he was around, he would have been one of them! It is appropriate that today, September 30th, is the memoria of St Jerome.
I have given some more paintings of him below, one showing him in red cardinal’s garb, anachronistically.
El Greco, 16th century
Ribera, 17th century
Caravaggio, 17th century
The Way of Beauty 
David:
It was a pleasure to interview you. One note: It’s Mitsui, not Matsui.
woops – apologies and thanks for letting me. Typos are the bane of my life.