The Real Story...

Easter vacation is coming and I'm hoping to work on some full-scale paintings.  In the meantime, I've been working on another study.  I've had a sketch in the sketchbook for a while - one of many familiar nursery rhymes that are always rolling around in my mind (my illustration side asserting itself).  In this case, those 3 men in a tub have wanted to be in a painting for a while.  HOWEVER, I've been wanting to merge the fine art and the illustration a bit more - although it might be a case of me finally accepting the fact that I can't separate the two.



New study in progress

Anyway, long story short, I was wondering how I could take this simple rhyme that kept calling for my attention and use it to glorify God.  The answer came in thoughts of Renaissance art history classes I had in college - paintings that were packed full of symbolic images that had religious, mythological, or historical meanings.  I always loved studying those art pieces as there were hidden stories within the compositions.  This project just seemed to fall right into that and, to tell the truth, I think it is road that I'm interested in traveling through more projects. 


One of the books that I kept from those days was a Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art which explains multiple meanings behind different objects and scenarios.  The more I thought about it, a more complete tale began to emerge.  I'll elaborate more when the final product is underway.  See what you can determine from the study...

Rub-a-dub-dub
Three men in a tub
And who do you think they be?
The butcher, the baker,
The candlestick maker,
Turn them out, knaves all three