Franciscan Monastery Church

The first five paintings were done inside the Franciscan Monastery Church of the Holy Land of America
The Franciscan Monastery is in Washington, D. C.

	#401 " Three Shrines"     This was the first of five paintings. Four works depicted the four arms of the          cruciform church. The fifth was of a side chapel of the Blessed Virgin.
	#402 "Chapel of the Sacred Heart"
	#403 "Chapel of Mt. Calvary"
	#404 "Chapel of the Holy Spirit"
	#405 "Chapel of the Blessed Virgin"

Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

Two works painted in the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

	#408 "Year of the Eucharist at Shrine of the Immaculate Conception"
	#411 "Martyrs in the Crypt Church"

The Gardens and Grounds of the Franciscan Monastery

NOTES:

I have always been a Christian and a believer in God. I have not been an active participant in any organized religion, but I have a great admiration for those who dedicate themselves to a church or synagogue. I also recognize the fact that Religion has  inspired and supported much of the greatest Art in the history of mankind.
It is unfortunate that most of today's artists have abandoned the church and Christian theology as inspiration for their art. In their zeal to portray most Religious Art as illustration and imitation of nature rather than pure artistic expression, artists have become blinded to this potential for innovation.

 This means I disagree with many popular beliefs that everything is Art and that everything designated by historians and  art authorities as Fine Art is worthy of the title. It is not art when I fails to convay an artist's intimate association with life. Art has always been about reality and man's interaction with nature. It was during the Rennaissance that man's artistic activity  achieved a level of connectidness to humanity.

 INSPIRATION

It is believed that an artist's best works are the product of inspiration. If that is the case, Gerald King's appearance at the Franciscan Monastery in NE Washington, D.C. in the spring of 2003, was a most fortuitous occasion. Or was it something more than a random confluence of a mature artist who had spent his life searching for beauty and truth, to come upon this trove of visual magnificence.
Long ago he had learned that inspiration comes more from humility than aggression. This church had existed for more than 100 years, yet few artists saw it as anything more than a pretty place which might inspire photographers. Gerald King had spent over 14 years studying and copying the works of the Great Masters at the National Gallery of Art. There he learned humility. There he had to confront his own arrogance in order to see clearly the magnificence of man's artistic achievement.
Arrogance which is encouraged and fostered by today's art world, blinds many artist and art enthusiasts to the great art of the past and much of the worthy art of the present.
Gerald King was inspired by the Monastery Church because he had already washed his artistic eye of much of the contemporary bias and condescension. He came to the Monastery not as an aggressor but as a pilgrim. He came not to take a picture but to make art. He came not to use the church to glorify himself but to create a picture and glorify the Church.
And his greatest reward was the inspiration and sense of purpose he felt working in the House of God. He knows that these are some of his finest artistic works. He believes his coming here was more than chance

Copies of the Old Masters
The following works are copies painted by Gerald King
at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. D. C.

                    
         #285 Copy after Vouet "St Jerome and Angel"                        #301 Copy after de La Tour "Repentant Magdalene"

                  
 # 365 Copy after Gentileschi "Lute Player"                         # 400 Copy after Rubens "Daniel and Lion's Den"

             
#434 Copy after Procaccini "Ecstasy of the Magdalene"

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