David Binns: the man and his art

[written in 2002, father binns was able to see my writing evolve over the nearly two decades we have been friends]

It’s at the old friary at the Brookfield Spirituality Centre where Father David Binns’ odd, yet stirring art hang like Holy lifelines from the walls. Paintings that have an odd edge, because this is art as we’ve never before seen it. The closest form one can link to Binns are paintings embodying the pre-Raphaelite movement created in 1848 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt. Lashings of art nouveau are also prominent within Binns’ paintings, where influences such as the likes of Czech artist Alfonse Mucha, who shaped the aesthetic of the art nouveau movement at the turn of the 20th century, are clearly manifested. The bearing on Binns’ paintings from French art nouveau untouchable Eugene Grasset materialises with such velvet efficacy, one could be mistaken for believing Grasset was alive and well; shuffling his brush across a canvas, fresh from having his posters shown at the Salon des Cant in 1894.

Aeons away at Corinda in Brisbane’s west, David Binns’ magnum opus is on permanent display in the chapel at St. Aidan’s Anglican Girl’s School.
‘I happened to come into the school the chapel when it was being built in 1988 and completed in 1989’, David explains. ‘I took it upon myself with the headmistress at the time and with her blessing, I began planning the decoration of the chapel, which was bare at the time. It’s a small chapel, so I needed to do something that wasn’t going to be overwhelming.’

Up until this point, David had painted smaller paintings and so on a scale he had only experienced when painting sets for the local musical societies in Toowoomba.

‘I wanted to do three paintings reminiscent of the traditional triptych, but in a more contemporary form. Traditionally, there is a dominant centre panel and two side panels which would close in during Lent. It’s is usually hung on the back wall of the chapel, but we decided that it would be best hanging on the side wall so students, teachers and visitors to the school could see it. I wanted to do three separate biblical paintings of women, with St. Aidan’s being a girl’s school. I think women in the bible are more important than people are led to believe.’

David bypassed the traditional way of using grids to map out his paintings, so instead drew it into squares, whereupon he would enlarge and copy each square. The original size of the drawing was drawn on two pieces of A4 paper. David then made overhead transparencies and using a projector, cast the images onto the canvas panels fastened to the chapel wall. Images were then pencilled onto each panel, which stand ten feet high and seventy-five centimetres wide. Despite their size, it took David only one hour to pencil in the images.

For David, the most difficult aspect to decode was the gradient of blue for each panel, as it proved to be an awkward size. Before he daubed his brush on the canvas, he prepared a watercolour version in order to set the pitch of colour – much like a toile, except on canvas. With the help of a group of year twelve art students, the preliminary work, such as the design of the triptych took a year, though the painting of the triptych itself took nine months to complete, ‘just like the birth of Jesus,’ says David.

His focal purpose for the piece was to appeal to a wide range of people including the students, from grades one to twelve, as well as the staff. ‘I wanted to make it fun too. The pleasure of the colour was integral because I love colour. To me, colour is God.’

The panels of the triptych which bleed into each other mark the beginning of Christ’s resurrection. Evocative of Robert Campin's 1426 triptych, Annunciation, the first panel is devoted to the subjects of the annunciation – Gabriel and Mary. Gabriel lingers above Mary, announcing that she is going to bear the son of God. In the vein of pre-Raphaelite art, David features lavish birds and flowers; embellishing the role of the hallowed femme fatales with their almond eyes and wanting lips.

These women resonate the traditional image of Jesus with their elongated faces, where the depth of each gentle motion of each sweeping shift has a texture of its own. Traditionally in religious art annunciations, Mary holds a lily symbolising purity and innocence. Her long, angular features and mournful face tell a tale as her fingers caress the lilies, while a feminine Gabriel hovers amongst ostensibly spirited birds.

The second panel tells the story of Jesus visiting Mary of Bethany and Martha – the two sisters of Lazarus. A pharaoh-like Mary sits at the foot of the painting, reflective in her position, while a practical Martha, the hostess with her sagacious long hair chastises Mary for her abstraction. This is placed within the bounds of slow ritual where movement takes shape and where Jesus works as mediator, praising Mary for her reflective bearing and humility. Again, wattle features in the background to tie the three panels together, while a gangly cat sits with Mary to add some light to the painting.

‘The challenge was to fit all of this action into one dramatic format,’ David says.

The final expanse of canvas symbolises the resurrection. The three Mary’s mourn at the tomb in various stages of dismay and wonderment, as Gabriel says, ‘Jesus is not here.’ The tomb is a sepulchre of emptiness and only the shroud remains as a symbol for the lost man. Birds make way for butterflies; the traditional symbol for resurrection.

In this panel, David has repeated the theme of a lingering Gabriel, the angel who reveals truths. Whereas the first panel has Gabriel telling Mary news of exultation, the final panel has Gabriel laying bear his hopelessness at the emptiness of the tomb. Both show Gabriel inverted and looking down upon his subject, conveying his sanctified empathy.

The triptych is a chance for everyone to view the sacred. It’s for people who share the similar vocations and beliefs, and for the apostasy, to realise the value of David Binns’ craft. For someone who had to forfeit art school and didn’t come from a background of religion, David’s contribution to the Church has been immense.

He says, ‘I had a childhood belief where I had this idea when I was about five or six, that if you could go to the absolute extremity of the universe and look back, the earth has a human shape, and that was God. It’s still my core belief and it has a fundamental truth, but is not to be taken literally. Every galaxy and every atom is God.’

David was around five years old when that thought barrelled through his head. There were other incidences that led me to my priesthood, but as far as that goes, that was my core belief and still is. I don’t take it literally, but there is some fundamental truth and it’s a powerful metaphor.’

For David, there are three reasons why he paints; ‘the first is to express and give form to inner thoughts and emotions. The second is to communicate and the third is the craft of art where hands and materials are used to create. From my standpoint, which has become the most important, is the evocation of the Holy – to be an open channel of the Holy and to let it shine through.’

David also designed the wooden cross that hangs behind the altar, as well one in copper that clings to the front of the chapel. This is encircled by twenty-four white doves that symbolise the school’s motto, pervola sonata – born to fly upwards. The ten stained glass windows, which have been donated by various community groups over a period of time, were also designed by David.

For an artist who has sharpened his craft where his triptych is particularly reminiscent of Rossetti’s iconic Beata Beatrix and The Golden Stair, one could be lead to believe that David Binns is at the peak of his artistic calling after having had formal art tutelage, however this was not to come to fruition. Instead of art classes, David learnt industrial, trade and geometrical drawing. After graduating secondary school, David had lessons with his art teacher, as well as finding his way autonomously with an apprenticeship in photo-engraving where he made print blocks for magazines. He enrolled in night school and spent four year studying colour drawing in Toowoomba, then began work at the CSIRO as an illustrator. ‘This gave me a love of exactness and detail. I always liked trying to get movement and energy in my paintings.’

Each week, David leads services and workshops at the spirituality centre, as well as spending time at the easel working on a new three part series of paintings, each consisting of eight works of art, entitled ‘Saints in the Suburbs’. The first sequence will be about the infancy of Christ, the second about the Ministry of Christ and the third, about the Passion: ‘I want them to transport biblical and gospel stories into our own time and place,’ he declares.

Through David Binns’ paintings, which appear to be more fable than art, we are able to see what lies beneath the surface of the acrylic; what lies at the core of the canvas. Through the subjects angular features, the gentle motion of each movement, the energy of the art nouveau inspired simplicity of line and rhythm as well as the manipulation of colour, it evokes to the observer that perhaps David Binns was born to reawaken both the pre-Raphaelite spirits but more importantly, the story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.