The original core idea of this painting came to me looking at a book on the artist George Tooker.
Jesus’ first miracle here on earth was turning water into wine at a wedding festival. His mother, Mary must have known the family as she seemed to be involved with the organization, not just an invited guest. She must have also brought her son (that she knew was divine) with her… that is interesting in itself – think about it… “I should bring Jesus himself to a wedding party”!
Anyway, back to the story, she did bring Jesus and good thing as the family did not properly estimate the amount of wine for the multi-day wedding festival. What I tried to depict here in this recording of Jesus performing his first miracle is from the point of view of Mary.
She has asked her son, whom she was told from the beginning was to be the savior of the world, God in human form, conceived by the holy spirit to help this family. When she asks him, here is what happened… “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.” Her response was not a direct reply to what He said to her – but – His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
I tried to capture her thoughts after he performed the miracle of “He is the Son of God and now everyone will know” This starts everything in motion.
Enjoy watching some of the steps I went through including Mary’s hand… felt it was not looking like a real hand and started back with painting the bone structure and then “put flesh back on it”.