10″ x 12.5″, Watercolor
Elgin Cathedral was the “Lantern of the North,” an active sanctuary of worship before its deterioration. After experiencing the ruins myself, the architecture of what remains enlivened in my imagination a desire to create a watercolor of what it once was like, given few references of the exterior in its glory days. I constructed my own rendition of the stained glass, taking inspiration from Rowan LeCompte’s use of color and character in the design. Given that the structure is in ruins, I did not have references for the perspective that I desired, so the demonstrated perspective is of my own visualized interpretation. Through use of layered shadow, my hope is that the light illuminates a reflection on how our inner sanctuary is so dark without the presence of God’s light shining in us. What inspires me the most is God’s radiant beauty in creation, which invokes in me a desire to reflect to Him his glory in a structural response, just as those who raised Elgin Cathedral’s walls had done centuries before.