Grantham<\/a>, but has been part of the congregation at the Stamford church for five years and an alto in its choir for four.<\/p>\nCanon Peter Vellacott commissioned Seraphina to create the 90cm x 60cm oil painting of the sixth Century saint after spotting her talent during the presentation of another work in the church hall.<\/p>\n
![\"Seraphina's](\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg)
Seraphina’s biggest commission to date took her 18 months to complete<\/p>\n
Despite bearing St Augustine\u2019s name, the church had never possessed a painting of its patron saint.<\/p>\n
\u201cCanon Peter approached me to paint St Augustine for the church,\u201d Seraphina recalled.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe requested it be produced in an Eastern Orthodox iconography style, something I was very unfamiliar with, and a style not commonly done at all with oil paint.\u201d<\/p>\n
She had to learn an entirely new painting technique when embarking on the work<\/p>\n
The young artist worked on the project while completing her college studies in graphic design, researching both the saint and the demanding painting technique required.<\/p>\n
Showing painstaking attention to detail, she even met with local experts to try and master the technique, while working on the painting in a converted summer house studio at home.<\/p>\n
Augustine was sent over from Rome by Pope Gregory The Great with 40 missionaries to evangelise England, landing in Kent in 597.<\/p>\n
The stunning work will go on permanent display in St Mary and St Augustine’s<\/p>\n
\u201cThe book in his hand is symbolic of his influence in the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons,\u201d Seraphina explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe taught and evangelised the Christian faith in England.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having painted all her life, Seraphina started a small art business aged 13 during the 2020 lockdown, selling digital prints, and taking some private commissions.<\/p>\n
Seraphina’s painting was unveiled in the church hall before its installation in St Mary and St Augustine’s Church. Photo: David Lowndes<\/p>\n
The St Augustine commission is her largest and most significant work, yet despite her artistic talents, her interests extend beyond the canvas.<\/p>\n
Having just finished her college studies, she plans to pursue law next year, driven by a growing passion for politics and legal studies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The work of a talented teenage painter has been unveiled in a town church after an 18-month commission.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,10052,6486,1120,1398,96,22140,192,8739,649,96852,194,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-333248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-education","tag-entertainment","tag-grantham","tag-human-interest","tag-lincs-homepage","tag-quirky","tag-stamford","tag-syndicate","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}