Grace Harvie

7 Deadly Sins - Grace Harvie

The Seven Deadly Sins Collection - All 7 original works Hyperrealist works of oil on canvas, 24x30 inches (7 pieces) Descriptions for each of the Seven Deadly Sins: Lust: Originally a stand alone piece responding to my fascination with colour psychology and emotional symbolism, this painting inspired its own title "Lust" and the rest of my series The Seven Deadly Sins. According to Christian teaching, lusting after physical and material pleasure is equally sinful, so I wanted the double meaning of lust to really come out here in the combination of seductive red lips and suggestive tongue which also holds up a gold chain.Greed: "Greed" depicts the sin of overbearing, brash materialism. It speaks to the religious origin of the Deadly Sin, which particularly ruled against uncharitable selfishness over wealth or expensive possessions. Despite common ideas about greed as private and internal, my piece exposes greed as loud and arrogant.Gluttony: "Gluttony" tells the story of overconsumption and overindulgence in the finer things in life. I wanted to capture the caught-in-the-act element of gluttony with thehoney mid-drip. Like all my original paintings in the Seven Deadly Sins series, "Gluttony" is self-modelled, self-designed and self-shot. This piece was my favourite to shoot and paint despite the challenge of photographing with runny honey.Envy: "Envy" represents the Christian sin of coveting the possessions and good fortune of other people. The snarl of the lips and clenched teeth reflect the anger and dissatisfaction associated with envy, and I wanted the embellished cross to really bring out the theological elements of sin as rejection of love, compassion and hope. I was particularly inspired by William Shakespeare's Othello and his green-eyed monster of jealousy.Sloth: "Sloth" paints the picture of spiritual and moral neglect. While the smug, open mouth shows a laughing dismissal of any religious values, I was inspired by changing colours of mould and decay for the black lips sparkling with multicoloured glitter, which reflect sloth's apathy and unkemptness. Like all the pieces in this series, the colours and design of "Sloth" was born from my fascination with colour psychology and a study of facial expression.Wrath: "Wrath" is ancient teaching for the modern age of environmentalism. Traditionally, wrath describes uncontrollable anger, but I wanted to put a contemporary twist on this by incorporating teeth biting into a pomegranate to represent the vulnerability of the natural world at the hands of humanity in the 21st century. I was particularly inspired by its deep blood-red colour, so I hope to convey the suffering of the environment under human domination through this symbolic painting.Pride: "Pride" pictures the Deadly Sin of being too confident in one's self or abilities. I have often seen this quality in people who keep their skills too private and are unwilling to share them with others to appreciate collective success. I wanted to play with the idea of using the colour white for this painting, so the areas at the corners of the mouth where the pearls have rubbed away the stark white lipstick represent the facade of pride as it eventually falls.Limited Edition Prints of the individual works are available View Here