RSA Scottish Art

Shrine, Banner and Prayer Flag

Small web image of Shrine, Banner and Prayer FlagArtist: William J L Baillie
Title: Shrine, Banner and Prayer Flag
Year: 1985
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions:
Suggested topic:
Source: RSA Diploma Collection
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Description: William J L Baillie's colour-laden paintings reflect the influence of his travels in the Far East and India. The title, Shrine, Banner and Prayer Flag, relates to religious objects from India. The intense colours refer to Hindu religious practice, to the shimmering heat, and also to the mystery and exoticism of the east as experienced by a Westerner. Along the centre of the painting lies a line of candles and what looks like a bowl of fruit. Baillie has focused on a small section of a religious space creating a tight composition with a limited colour scheme. The composition is deliberately symmetrical. The strict vertical and horizontal lines are only occasionally disturbed by angled marks or irregular shapes and allow us to concentrate on the religious offerings in the centre. The view of the shrine has been chosen deliberately so that the viewer sees only the edge of the shrine with no perspective of the top or bottom surface. It is wholly flat and decorative. Baillie's execution of this painting displays a variety of paint techniques. Some areas appear to have been painted and then ragged, where a cloth is either scrubbed to remove all but a thin layer of staining or is scrunched and pressed onto wet paint to leave mottled markings. Other areas have been washed with turpentine to leave drip marks and a “dusty” surface. The intense palette, composed of a limited selection of oranges and yellows with a few contrasting greens and a hot red, suggests shimmering golden fabrics and warm metallic light. Artists have often been drawn to religious subjects. Can you imagine how you might depict objects which represent a religion that is unfamiliar to you?