“The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. ”
The Colours of the Foundations of the Walls of the New Jerusalem
I painted the colours of the wall foundations for the New Jerusalem, but before I could go on, I needed more research into the names of the twelve apostles, which will be on each foundation.
In my research, I found different parts of Scripture had different lists of apostles! This is too important to get wrong, so I dug deeper before painting the names. Some New Testament authors listed Thaddeus as one of the Twelve, while others listed Judas Son of James. It wasn’t unusual for the apostles to have more than one name—Simon Son of Jonah was renamed by Jesus, as Peter, the rock. But I couldn’t paint both names—which was it? I discovered that while Thaddeus was mentioned in several places, Judas Son of James was only mentioned by Luke in his books, which were written later. So the name Thaddeus seems the most likely to be in the tribute.
As I mentioned in my previous post, http://www.joancthomsonart.com/blog/2020/4/16/the-names-of-the-apostles, I settled on Matthias as Judas Iscariot’s replacement, rather than Paul of Tarsus since Matthias was numbered among the Twelve and Paul never was.
The Names of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus printed and ready for transfer to the canvas.
I chose to use Luke’s order since he told us about Matthias, the newest addition to their number.
The first layer of gold—in ink.
I printed the names from my computer and traced them onto tracing paper and from there, onto the canvas, Peter the Rock, on the first or bottom foundation then followed the list upward with Matthias at the top.
The letters were too fine for the gilding I had planned so I painted each one with a fine brush. Since I’m left-handed, I found that turning the names (and the canvas) vertically helped me reach them without smearing. The first layer was in gold fibre-tipped marker so I could see the letters better as I painted. Then two layers of gold iridescent paint (at least). A final coat of a lighter gold iridescent paint gave it extra beauty.
The finished painting. The Foundations Joan C. Thomson Acrylic on Canvas
As I painted, I thought about all these men gave up to be in Jesus’ inner circle; they all reportedly suffered horrendous persecution, with all but John dying a violent death (though the Romans did try). Oh but what they gained—a close up look at the coming of the Kingdom of God to earth, the Son of God in person! They were trained by God himself to “heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.” What a privilege! As I painted their names, I thanked God for these men, who passed on to us this Good News of Jesus coming to pay the price for our sin and inviting us to be a part of God’s family. The Twelve will be greatly honoured. What an honour to paint this tribute.