O Holy Night, oil on linen, 40 x 30 inches unframed.  Commissioned by Sarasota Christian Church, 2923 Ashton Road, Sarasota, FL.  The painting was for the advent season.  The idea is that the cherubs--the child-angels--had been asking what happened to Jesus?  Where has he gone?  Why did he leave?  When will he be back?  The scene shows the cherubs when they are allowed to visit, carefully watched over by a more mature angel.  This is Jesus? He's so small, so helpless.  And what is this dark place?  I could go on.  The point is that the advent is a mystery, no matter whose lens we happen to be viewing it through.

I borrowed the cherubs from the art of William-Adolphe Bouguereau with a bit of tongue in cheek.  Bouguereau was a French academic painter. He was a staunch traditionalist whose realistic genre paintings and mythological themes were modern interpretations of Classical subjects with a heavy emphasis on the female human body.  IOW, as Paul Gauguin claimed, he sold pornography to rich American industrialists.  You might say I upcycled his cherubs:)

The original of this painting has been sold.  Quality reproductions are available, as are note cards.