These are the Ones

“These are the Ones” is the name of my first series of paintings.

Who knew that in 2009 when I had a handful of new portraits from photos that Steve Bell took on his trips to Ethiopia and India, that in 2011 I would have an inventory of over 80 paintings – so many that I need to divide them into series!

"Ethiopian Men" (in the photo with the Bells)

Therefore I am naming my first series after a song on his newest album, Kindness. He wrote “These are the Ones” with his friend Glen Soderholm, and the Canadian Foodgrains Bank used it in their promotional video. As I listened to the album for the hundredth time, the lyric to the song seemed to jump out at me and tell me to name my series after this beautiful song.

Here is the lyric:

Beauty for a crown
Oil of gladness raise
Comforting those who mourn
In royal robes of praise

As the soil conceals what’s sown
The garden causes seeds to grow

These are the work of my hands
These are the shoot I have planted here
For the display of my splendor here
In these beleaguered (enchanted) lands

These are the ones that I love
These are the ones I have called my own
These are the priests of a sacred home
These are the ones
These are the ones I love

This the fast I choose
The song I want to hear
Let the bonds be loosed
The day is drawing near

Blessed be these lovely ones
Dancing in the setting sun

For the song clip on Steve’s website, click here.

The 18 Paintings in the “These are the Ones Series” (They can be viewed by clicking on the Paintings category on the main menu):

Brother and Sister, Ethiopian Men, Ethiopian Boy, Field Worker, Girl with Goats, Woman in Crowd,  Lady in Turban, Woman and Child, Man with Stick,  Man Carrying Tools,  Man with Turban, Steve’s Sunglasses, Mud Buddies, Smiling Woman, Bihar Family, Mona and Lisa, Musahar Child, Mother and Son and more planned for the future.