Faith inspired

A solitary shepherd walks forward through open country with his flock gathered around him, some close beside him, others moving ahead, a few trailing behind, all of them under his care and moving towards the light.

It was painted from the words "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me", John 10:27. The shepherd is seen from behind rather than face on, which was deliberate: the painting suggests its subject rather than states it.

Built up with a palette knife in acrylic impasto and granular texture paste, finished with an oil paint overwash and ink, on canvas, 100 x 77 cm framed, an original one of one. It was painted for Martin himself and was never meant to be shown. It is now the work people ask about most.

Read the story behind Eternal Shepherd

"I was a painter trapped in a photographer's body. Photography was the thing that helped me into the artistic world of painting, mixed media and Photo Alchemy."

The push came with Memoirs of Light. Samantha Lee Osner had chosen mixed media for her section of the show and Ramzi Mansour had chosen photography through the lens for his, and the three of them were exhibiting alongside one another. The only thing left for Martin was painting.

"I had always threatened that I would go on some courses and learn how to do it, just in case, and that never happened. Working in mixed media I was using photography as a strong underpinning. But when you start to put paint onto a blank canvas it is another story altogether."

"So I remember going on my knees and asking the Lord for the hands and the thoughts of a painter. That was before I had even started, before I had put any paint onto any medium, because I was still so unsure whether I could do this or not."

Then came the first piece, a small one, a test. His youngest daughter Leeanne walked into the studio when it was done, looked at it and asked who did that. Martin said he did. She did not believe him. "But it's a painting." And then: "I never knew you were an artist."

"She was twenty one, so hardly a babe, and she does not mince her words. I had to laugh. The branding of photographic artist sometimes burns deep, as if to say you are an undercover artist. But I needed that recognition, and it came from someone who was convinced a real artist had painted it."

What arrived with it was the mind of a painter: the brushstrokes, the palette knife work, the colours that work with one another, and highlight and shadow. "That is the one thing photography does teach you straight away, the relationship of highlight and shadow, and how a shadow gives away the quality, the direction and the character of your light source." It is what made mixing paint down through graduations make sense.

"I knew when it was right and I knew when it was wrong, and that was half the battle." From that one small test piece came the Yesterday collection, and the only real proof was the public, people who did not know him from Adam, writing good reviews and digging into their pockets.

"So in this case the Lord did not only gently order my steps. He also blessed me with the mind and the hands of a painter when I asked for it."

INRI began with a painting by Gabriel Max from the 1870s, the one whose eyes appear to open and close as you look at it. Martin's version keeps them closed throughout, and adds a halo, layered texture and the inscription INRI, King of the Jews.

The closed eyes are the whole point. One of the greatest gifts given to man is free will, so Christ responds when He is invited, and only then will His eyes open to you. Nothing in the picture happens without you.

Archival pigment print on fine art paper, 141 x 110 cm. It is also the painting on the banner at the top of this page.

Son of God

A quiet, contemplative portrait, and the one place in this collection where the crown of thorns is replaced entirely. In its place is gold leaf, laid on by hand: not suffering, but majesty and reverence.

The soft layered texture and the low light are doing the work. It celebrates Jesus not only as the suffering servant but as the Son of God in glory, which is why the thorns are gone.

Archival pigment print on fine art paper with gold leaf embellishment, 64 x 50 cm framed, a signed edition of 20.

The figure in this work is not Martin's. It is a mural by the South African street artist Faith47, painted on the wall of a restaurant in Woodstock, Cape Town. The building has since been demolished and the mural went with it.

Martin photographed it while it was still there and built a limited edition photomontage from that single mural. The original carried one beam of light. His version adds a second beam, entering the figure's hands, so that what is received from God flows outward again into thought and action.

It is the clearest example on this page of what photography can do that painting cannot: keep something that is gone. Archival print on fine art paper, 70 x 100 cm, an edition of 35.

A dark silhouette stands between turbulent colour on one side and soft muted tones on the other, which is the moment somebody turns inward. Layers of textured paint and newspaper fragments run through it, and one of them reads "The world shouts, God whispers".

The tension is deliberate. Deep dark tones against fiery, expressive colour: struggle on one hand and presence on the other, and stillness as the thing that restores clarity.

Original, one of one, signed on the painting. Paint on metal, 93 x 123 cm framed.

The empty cross of Calvary here was sculpted in bronze by Simon Shone, and it stands below Lion's Head with Table Mountain behind it and Devil's Peak on the left.

The reading of the mountain is the idea the work is built on: Table Mountain as the Table of the Last Supper, Devil's Peak as Judas Iscariot, Lion's Head as the Lion of Judah, and the cross placed just below the peak. Blood runs from the cross and light radiates out of it onto the people below.

The sky is painted in swirling Van Gogh patterns, which is what keeps a piece of this weight from becoming solemn. It is part of African Art Fusion, the work Martin and Simon Shone make together.