This oil painting of ‘St Joan and the Poppies’was commissioned for the 90th anniversary rededication of St Joan of Arc church in the British Army Garrison in Catterick, North Yorkshire on the 30 May 2019. It is the national memorial church for all Catholic members of the British Army and RAF who died in the First World War and in subsequent conflicts.
I wanted to portray St Joan as a young woman confident in Christ in this life and in the next.
She is dressed in early 15th century armour and a kilted skirt in penitential purple. As she stands in a poppy field representing the dead of the British Army and RAF, St Joan looks up to the heavenly light of paradise piercing down through the clouds of battle, onto her and the landscape below. In her hands St Joan holds aloft a wooden cross and her unique banner carrying the words ‘Jhesus Maria’ to inspire and comfort her army.
The image on the banner shows two angels kneeling in adoration of the Child Jesus as He’s held by His mother the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Child Jesus holds the Holy Ghost in theform of a white dove on an olive branch of peace. The angels hold an orb representing the Christ Child’s dominion over the world and a lily to signify the sinless purity of the Virgin Mary. The five fleur de lys point to the Five Wounds of Christ that He suffered for mankind during his Passion.
Although the silhouetted infantrymen and Catholic padre in the distance behind St Joan wear uniforms from 1914 they represent all fallen Catholic British troops. Included on the left is a French cavalryman of the 12eme Cuirassier Regiment in acknowledgment of the ultimate sacrifice made by Britain’s allies during the war.
The scene on the right shows a battlefield funeral led by a Catholic chaplain attended by troops praying for the soul of their killed comrade while a Scots piper and plays a Highland lament. One of the soldiers simultaneously points to heaven and St Joan.
High in the sky a Sopwith Camel biplane of the Royal Flying Corps remembers their sacrifice and that of the RAF.
Ultimately I wanted the painting to recognise those Catholic servicemen and servicewomen who have died in war but also to confidently assert for their Holy Souls, that the best is yet to come for them with Christ in heaven.
Like the Catholic Church on earth, St Joan always points to something beyond herself.
A heavenly reward.