By Simon Caldwell
The election of Pope Francis inspired an immediate slew of biographies, but Stephen B. Whatley decided he would do something different — he would paint him.
His oil on canvas portrait of the Argentine pope, measuring 28 inches by 20 inches, has now been unveiled at a Westminster Cathedral exhibition that runs until Aug. 22.
It is being shown less than a month after Whatley painted it in a single six-hour session July 14.
Painted in bright colors in the emotionally evocative style of the expressionists, it has the effect of capturing much of the radiant charm and personal warmth of the pope.
Speaking to Catholic News Service at the opening of the exhibition Aug. 8, Whatley said he had been personally inspired by Pope Francis and felt a “divine push” to portray him.
He said he considered him to be a “breath of fresh air” and “just what the world needs at this time.”
“I thought I just had to paint him,” Whatley said. “I didn’t just work from one photograph, I worked from several photographs, and one of them had featured a dove, and that became the Holy Spirit to me, a theme that would flow through the painting.
“I feel that through his humility he aligns himself to God and looks to God before he does anything else,” Whatley said. “He doesn’t depend on himself, he depends on God first to direct him — that’s also how I feel as an artist.”
Certainly, the evidence of Whatley’s religious impulse is tangible in the 30 paintings on display in the cathedral chapels of St. Patrick and St. Andrew.
His work includes depictions of Sts. Lucy, James the Greater, Andrew, Anthony of Padua, Clare of Assisi and Faustina, as well as Blesseds John Paul II and John Henry Newman.
Jesus is depicted repeatedly, and Whatley has painted American-based images, including St. Kateri Tekakwitha and Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Opening the exhibition, “Paintings From Prayer,” Whatley emphasized to a group of invited guests that his religious works “truly are from my heart and my soul, and I feel at the foot of the cross before I begin any such painting.”
“I give thanks to God and all the saints who have helped me,” he said.
Afterward, Whatley told CNS that he had literally created the exhibition by “painting from prayer.”
“Every painting I do is difficult,” he said. “It is as if I’ve never painted before when I start a painting. In terms of my faith, I feel that I’m given that darkness before just to create.
“With every painting, I pray deeply before beginning,” he explained. “I fall into a state of fear and anxiety that drives me to seek God, but I feel that that fear and anxiety is a necessary part of my creative process.”
Whatley said he prays the rosary daily and also says the Divine Mercy Chaplet and offers novenas when he is painting.
Four paintings in the exhibition involve the Divine Mercy revelations, and Mary appears in six paintings.
“I hope I have much time to live so I can paint as many devotions as there are,” Whatley said.
Whatley, 48, has been a Catholic since Easter 2011.
His reception into the church was a milestone in a long personal pilgrimage that began in his childhood when he was raised in a nominally Anglican household where people were not expected to go to church and had little religious education.
He recalled, however, that at age 14, he found himself “looking up into the sky and knowing that I was going to live forever.”
Two years later, his mother died in an accident, and he suffered years of depression, finding occasional solace mostly through his art, which, he said, was inspired by such great expressionists as Vincent Van Gogh, the Dutch artist.
The quality of his work swiftly came to the attention of the art world, and he staged his first major solo exhibition in 1988. Over the years, his work has been the subject of features in the New York Times, Time magazine and USA Today as well as the British press.
His many commissions include paintings of Buckingham Palace and 30 large pieces for the Tower of London, including a portrait of St. Thomas More; many British public figures have sat to be painted by him.
Whatley ventured into the world of religious art for the first time on Christmas 2000 when he painted the baby Jesus.
This came as he felt drawn ever closer to the Catholic faith, largely inspired by the example of his Catholic friends and acquaintances.
His long delay in joining the church was born of “the sense that I was moving away from my (Anglican) mother,” he said.
Today, Whatley continues to undertake major secular commissions, but he has an additional sense of vocation, a conviction that not only is it possible for his art to draw people closer to God but that it can also heal them.
He said he regularly receives correspondence from people thanking him for his work. One person said his picture of St. Lucy improved her eyesight, and another said: “You have restored my faith.”
Whatley said he “would like to do a lot more work in America.”
“New York was a massive inspiration for me when I went there,” he added. – CNS