Crown of Thorns
“A challenge was issued to me by my wife, an accomplished artist to produce more art using the computer that was not inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien. She suggested a Biblical theme. What followed was a series I called “Word Pictures” – the Word referring to both the Bible and to Christ Jesus Himself.”
This is the final image in my series of images with a Biblical theme. The Euphorbia milii (also known as crown of thorns, Christ plant or Christ thorn) is a species of flowering plant, native to Madagascar. It is a succulent climbing shrub, with densely spiny stems. The flowers are small and red, pink or white. This plant inspired me to create a symbolic image using the actual plant and its flowers (red like blood) and put it on a weathered stone statue of Christ. Rather than opting for the “bloodfest” of “The Passion of Christ”, I opted to use the flowers to symbolise the blood shed by Christ on the cross, letting nature speak its message with colour.