Fellowship of Christians in Portraiture

Lazarus James Reid's paintings have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in galleries throughout the United States, including the Bayly Art Museum at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville; the Hackett-Freedman Gallery in San Francisco; the New York Academy of Art, the Art Students League and the Bowery Gallery in New York City; Gallery Genesis in Chicago; Exhibit A in Savannah, Georgia; and the Mongeon Gallery in Portland, Oregon. He has lectured and taught at numerous colleges and museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Students League of New York, the New York Studio School, the New York Academy of Art, and Parsons School of Design in New York City; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Norton Simon Collection in Pasadena, California; Oregon State University in Corvallis; and Union College in Schenectady, New York.

Lazarus James Reid received a B.F.A. from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated Summa cum Laude. He received an M.F.A. from Indiana University in Bloomington.

reidartists@earthlink.net
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Lazarus James Reid
176 East 81st Street,#3B
New York, NY 10028
(212) 879-5346

Personal Testimonies by Fellowship Members

The Theological Dimensions of a True Portrait
by Lazarus James Reid

Portrait of Dr. Rudolph Steiner
by Lazarus James Reid

rom childhood I delighted in drawing and painting. When I didn't have brushes or charcoal in hand I was looking at books about old master paintings. I found I was particularly interested in pictures representing episodes from the Scriptures, so at age eleven I started reading the Bible to find out what was going on in the pictures. When I was fourteen I began to feel a deeper longing for God, and I prayed that the Holy Spirit would come into my heart. A few weeks later I was looking at art books late at night, and came across Holman Hunt's "Light of the World." It reminded me of something I vaguely remembered reading, so I thumbed through the book of Revelation until I found the words "Behold, I stand at the door and knock..." All at once I felt a fountain of grace well up within my heart and pour forth in praise and thanksgiving. I got down on my knees and let the prayer continue. The next morning I resumed praying the moment I awoke, and I realized that day that I would never be the same as I had been before.

I turned my talent over to the Lord. Since He had used art to bring me to His Word, perhaps He would use my art to draw others to Himself. Now art had a special purpose for me. But my talent seemed too inadequate to the glory of the Gospel. Then for some years I spent all my available time studying the Word of God, thinking I would become a preacher. Yet in my college years and after, the Lord kept providing events to lead me back to painting, and particularly to portrait painting which has always been inseparable, in my practice, from Biblical painting. Early along the way I knew hardship and adversity. And, through the years, I have not been as good a servant of the Lord as I want to be. But I have always found that when I am following Christ with all my heart and strength, then whether in any aspect of life I encounter ease or difficulty, joy or sorrow, the yoke is easy, the burden is light, because I carry it together with Jesus. Conversely, all that the world can offer is burdensome without closeness to Christ.

We are created in God's image. Every human being is known and loved by God. I approach each portrait subject with a certain reverence on account of this mysterious image quality, the relationship with God which is at the secret heart of each person's existence whether acknowledged or ignored, accepted or repudiated. God alone knows and judges. To me, as a Christian portrait painter by God's mercy, it is given to recognize and serve Christ in each one. Just as the Lord's everlasting power and Godhead are to be seen in his creation (Romans 1:20), even so art that is true and beautiful implicitly manifests the inner flame of things, the power of God upholding and providing for all his creatures. The epiphanic quality of appearances, searched out in the rhythmic and organic relations of lines and tones, planes and volumes, is my constant concern in painting and teaching. And if the sustaining power and providence of God is the inner treasure of every beautiful still-life or landscape, how marvelous are the theological dimensions of a true portrait!

Glory and thanksgiving be to God for all things.

Lazarus James Reid
New York City
November, 2000