The Grail

I tend to work very intuitively. If I like it, it stays, if I don't, I try again. This is one of the greatest things about painting digitally. Versions and branching allow for a very new workflow. So the following interpretation never occurred to me while I was making the image. I want to make something like rich soil, that just about anything could grow in. A quick take — In plain view a cross is clear, with the center figure collapsing internally from spiritual malaise, as seen by the inward gestures of the whole body and shoulders and hands. This would be us, having lost a key idea or vitality, some version of a Grail. The base of the cross would be the Knight who found the Grail at great time and expense. All pretense of wealth or station is gone, perhaps this humility has allowed him to find the Grail at all. But certainly he is in contrast with the other Knights. The screen left figure is the Pious. The other Knight is skeptical. The Pious has bowed deeply and submits to the truth of the Grail. The Skeptic is standing, at the ready, and is armed. He's not too sure about any of this. Another very clear device is the theatricality. The lens is VERY long. The shapes stack up very similar to a stage scene. I find this creates a formality that I might have done with symmetry a while ago. But now I really like the artificiality of the composition contrasted with naturalistic painting.