Frank Bramblett, Healing of the Chalk

Bramblett often incorporates natural raw materials in his painting, and here uses charcoal and limestone chalk, both of which derive from mined substances. Healing of the Chalk is based on the miracles of Christ as depicted in Rembrandt’s drawings and etchings. Here a blind man is made to see as Jesus offers him the host, a white disc set against a field of black elements. Bramblett was inspired by a trip to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam: “I entered a very long and darkened corridor. Down each wall and in the center were rows of glass cases. In those cases were what seemed to be hundreds of Rembrandt’s sketchbooks and bound etchings. I was overwhelmed not only by the sheer quantity of work, but also by its physicality. It was as if Rembrandt was a stone carver, the paper was his stone, and his pen was his chisel. This sense of physical weight carried into the emotional weight of his subjects.”