St. Francis 1972

David Chethlahe Paladin's "St. Francis" is a flat, decorative devotional image, where the mark-making feels intuitive, maybe even childlike. The animals and saint are outlined with clear, hard edges, filled in with opaque colors. There’s not a lot of blending. It's honest, and what you see is what you get, like a drawing made with crayons. The texture is smooth, and the paint seems thinly applied, which allows the surface of the support to remain visible. The various animals are treated with similar consideration, each one distinct yet unified in their simplicity. I am drawn to the deer with the spotty body and big surprised eyes. This directness reminds me a little of Henri Rousseau, another artist who embraced a self-taught aesthetic, and it's a reminder that painting doesn’t have to be complicated to be profound. It invites us to consider the beauty in simplicity and the power of faith and art to connect us to something larger than ourselves.