Blind Bartimaeus Healed, Christian Wall Art

What is painted

Bartimaeus sits against a wall of rough stone under an olive tree, wrapped in a worn brown cloak with frayed edges and a cloth band around his curly hair. A walking stick lies across the ground beside him, next to an empty wooden begging bowl. His head is tipped back and he is smiling.

Jesus stands at his side in a cream robe and a mantle threaded with gold, one hand resting on the man's shoulder. Thin lines of gold run across Bartimaeus's cheek and over the backs of his hands, like the mended cracks of kintsugi pottery. Behind them, the walls and towers of a city rise in the haze, and the sun sits low among cypress trees.

The work is an impressionist oil-style painting printed full bleed. No text appears on it.

The healing in Mark 10

Mark 10:46-52 sets the scene as Jesus leaves Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd. Blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, is sitting by the highway begging. Hearing that Jesus of Nazareth is passing, he cries out: “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.” People tell him to be quiet, and he only shouts louder.

Jesus stops and has him called. Bartimaeus throws off his garment, jumps up and comes. Asked what he wants, he says he wants to receive his sight. Jesus answers, “Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole,” and immediately he can see, and he follows Jesus along the road.

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics with gold so that the repair shows. The gold lines here borrow that idea as a painted symbol of a life mended, not as real pottery.

Who it is for

Hang it in a hallway, a prayer room or a doctor's or counselor's waiting room. It speaks to someone praying for healing, a person who has regained hope after a diagnosis, an eye doctor or nurse who shares the faith, and Bible study groups working through Mark.

Prints are made on demand in the US as giclées on thick archival matte paper and ship free to US addresses. They are sold without frames, in sizes from 5x7 to 24x36 inches, plus metric and A sizes, and a digital file can be ordered instead.