An Art School For Christians - Showcasing Work by the New Stabat Mater Studio’s Apprentices

Students Getting an Authentic Traditional On-the-Job Apprentice Training

The excellent Stabat Mater Studio—an art school I recommend for soup-to-nuts training in naturalistic art styles—opened this September! As Scala Foundation Artist-in-Residence, I have been consulted as a sounding board by Executive Director Robert Puschautz, whose vision this formation reflects.

This Fall, a mixture of full-time core students and part-timers began intensive instruction in the fundamentals of drawing from Robert and Art Fellow AnneMarie Johnson. 

One key distinguishing the Stabat Mater Studio from other classical art programs is that it is a working studio with an openly Catholic ethos that offers students on-the-job training by participating in commissions given to the studio's master artists.  

It's most recent project, this Fall, was for St. Joseph’s in Mason, TX. Stabat Mater Foundation was in charge of the stencilling portion of this historic church's renovation under Studio Io's guidance. After the stencilling was finished on-site, the whole studio, teachers and students came together to complete the Tree of Life mural behind the crucifix, which was then adhered to a board behind the altar. Photos are shown here. 

“One of our goals is to share an integrated approach to art with students. We are not just making pretty pictures for walls but trying to create work that reflects the cosmological order of the universe. That means creating a harmony between the architecture, the artwork and objects that go into the church and the mission and function of that liturgical space.” - Robert Puschautz.

You can read about their intensive integrated training program here. It is a uniquely well-rounded program rooted in rigorous academic method training but certainly not limited to it. 

A couple of features particularly caught my eye: 

First, they include training in sacred geometry, harmony, and proportion, which is unique to this school. 

Second, they transition the students from being able to draw and paint accurately what they see - which is hard enough -  to creating original paintings that draw on the imagination of the artist and the memory of what they have observed in the past. This final stage is so often missing in the ateliers that have sprung up around the country, and it leaves artists at a disadvantage if they don't have it because they can only reproduce scenes they create in the studio. This is why so many naturalistic paintings being commissioned look like a static Victorian tableau in which the girl next door is dressed up as the Virgin Mary. 

Also, Pontifex University is proud to partner with Stabat Mater atelier. Through our online courses created in art theory, created for the Master of Sacred Arts program, we offer intellectual formation and deep inculturation that accompanies the training in artistic skills that the Stabat Mater atelier offers. 

Contact Studio Io for church renovation commissions and Stabat Mater Foundation for artistic and decorative commissions. 

A Modern Medium For Artists Looking to Offer Traditional Beauty To Our Churches

After a recent article suggesting that light, portable images and furnishings, such as a rood screen, might be a way to beautiful sacred spaces at a reasonable cost, I was delighted to hear again from the well-known Catholic sculptor Thomas Marsh. He wanted to tell me about a medium that he uses, which he felt would help people looking for economical and lightweight sculptures and sculpted furnishings that nevertheless have a permanent look - white gypsum cement. This was new to me, and what he described was worth passing on to you.

I've featured Thomas’s work before, notably in an interview with Dr. Carrie Gress. What sets Thomas apart in the world of classical naturalism is his deep understanding of sacred art. Unlike many skilled artists who blur the lines between sacred and secular, Thomas knows that sacred art should idealize its subjects more emphatically, emphasizing universal human values over particular details, but without neglecting the particular altogether in a subtle balance of naturalism and idealism. When artists get this right, and I think Thomas does, the result is sculptures worthy of veneration, rather than what we often see, portraits of models dressed as holy figures, albeit skillfully rendered.

Thomas wrote to me about white gypsum cement: "It's in the plaster family, though much harder and more durable. It's strictly an interior material. I often do relief sculptures for projects for the Church, and the beauty of reliefs is that they are sufficiently subtle to harmonise with architecture, when appropriate. When focused upon, they lend themselves to detailed representation, to almost any degree of verisimilitude with proper lighting from above. Finally, they are VERY economical to produce, ship, and install."

To showcase this versatile medium, I've included some examples of Thomas' relief works. There's also a photo of a large ensemble he created for St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Fredericksburg, VA. The centerpiece is a 6'6" corpus cast in fiberglass-reinforced gypsum cement with light polychrome—i.e. coloration. Despite its impressive size, it weighs just 90 pounds!

Contact Thomas Marsh through thomasmarshsculptor.net

Keep the Dates! Scala Foundation Conference, April 21-22, 2023. Princeton, NJ,

Featuring Aidan Hart, Jonathan Pageau and David Clayton

Scala Foundation will host its next conference on April 21-22, 2023 on the campus of Princeton Theological Seminary. The Scala Foundation’s mission is to restore meaning and purpose to American culture through beauty, liberal arts education and religion. The name Scala comes from the Latin word for a ladder. With God’s help we can ascend the the ladder of perfection, like the angels in Jacob’s dream.

This conference, entitled Art, the Sacred, and the Common Good: Renewing Culture through Beauty, Education and Worship. brings together Christians from different denominations with a view to us all working together to evangelize American culture as one of beauty that speaks of the Beauty of God. It will feature a dozen total speakers, including the best-selling author Andy Crouch and the internationally renowned artists Jonathan Pageau and Aidan Hart. I am honored to have been asked to moderate a conversation with my friends Jonathan and Aidan on the renewal of sacred art. We are particularly blessed to have Aidan, my former teacher, coming from England especially for the conference.

In the afernoon session, Elizabeth Black, Principal of St Stephen’s K-9 school in Grand Rapids, MI, will talk about how she has implemented The Way of Beauty into her school. I visited her school this past summer and wrote about it, here.

I was at the 2022 conference as both speaker and attendee and it was one of the most hopeful, constructive and inspiring events of this type that I have attended.

Scala Foundation’s Executive Director, Margarita Mooney Clayton writes:

The goal is to show how traditions in beauty, education and worship, although under threat, are indeed being renewed. Attendees at this event will have the opportunity to:

• Meet internationally renowned artists and prestigious scholars;

• Experience beautiful sacred music, art, and architecture;

• Learn why beauty is essential to personal happiness and civic participation;

• Be inspired by educators who form virtues through beauty;

• Build community with people pursuing the way of beauty.

One attendee last year said:

“The conference was rejuvenating. Inspiring. Encouraging. Enlivening. As an architecture major who went into youth ministry and now doing graduate work in theology, this conference allowed me to connect the dots between art, faith and service.”

The conference begins with a dinner and keynote lecture on Friday night, followed by a full day on Saturday of keynote addresses, panels, and breakout sessions with speakers. Attendees will also have the chance to participate in chorale prayer for liturgy of the hours, to see an exhibit of archives of sacred texts from Princeton Theological Seminary, and see the art of the speakers and other local artists.

Registration will begin in December 2022. Visit the conference website to let them know you are interested and they will send you advance notice of registration!

I encourage all to attend!