A Painting for Uncle Frank, 1980

A Painting for Uncle Frank

SAINT PAUL - HEBREWS. 'A PAINTING FOR UNCLE FRANK.' Colin McCahon 1980. (brushpoint, b.l.)

EGMONT

AHIPARA

ahipara
here I come
back home where
I started
from

you stand before mount Zion
City of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem,
before myriads of angels, the full concourse and
assembly of the first-born citizens of heaven and
God the judge of all, and the spirits of good men made
perfect, and Jesus the mediator of the covenant whose sprinkled blood has
better things to tell than the blood of abel. see that you do not
refuse to hear the voice
that Speaks.
Those who refused
to hear the oracle speaking on earth
found no escape; still less shall we escape if we
refuse to hear the ONE who speaks
from heaven
The indeed his Voice shook the earth,
but not as he had promised
'yet once again I will shake not earth
alone, but the heavens also.'
The words 'once again' - and only once - imply that
the shaking of these created things means their removal,
and then what is not shaken will remain.
The kingdom we are given is unshakeable:
Let us therefore give thanks to GOD and worship him
as he would be worshiped with
reverence and awe for our GOD is
a devouring fire

By thee, Lord were earth's
foundations laid of old, and the
heavens are the work of thy hands.
They shall pass away, but thou
endurest;
Like clothes they shall grow old;
Thou shalt fold them up Like a cloak;
Yes, they shall be changed like any garment
BUT THOU ART THE SAME.
AND THY YEARS SHALL HAVE NO END.
He who makes his angels winds
and his minister
a fiery flame.

1980 Two Recent Oils by Colin McCahon
Peter McLeavey Gallery
Wellington
12/8/1980 - 29/8/1980

1988 Colin McCahon: Gates and Journeys
Auckland City Art Gallery
Auckland
11/11/1988 - 26/2/1989

1998 Dream Collectors: One Hundred Years of Art in New Zealand
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Wellington
14/2/1998 - 7/1998

The subject of this painting was Toss Woollaston's Uncle, Frank Tosswill. A member of the Oxford Group, also known as Moral Re-armament, Tosswill was an itinerant preacher in the Nelson region in the 1940s. The texts come from A Letter to Hebrews, 12:22-29; 1:10-12 and 1:7, from the New English Bible.