Professional artist repaints W.G. church's Jesus statue

WINTER GARDEN — To deepen faith in preparation for Easter and the celebration of the Resurrection, many Christians fast, increase charitable contributions, focus on building character and virtue or go without some item or concept during the 40-day journey of Lent.

At Resurrection Catholic Church, leaders decided to prepare for Easter with a repaint of their statue of resurrected Jesus at the front entrance of the church.

“The statue was purchased about five years ago, and the Florida sun has just eaten away at the paint and so on, because it faces the sun from about 10 to 3,” said church leader Steve Potts. “I knew it just needed a little cleanup. When it came time for the decision, I thought, ‘What a perfect time before Easter to have the risen Christ painted and worthy of looking at.’”

Church officials purchased the statue from a European sculptor with the parish name in mind, Potts said.

“It was certainly a sacrifice on the parishioners’ part to contribute to a well-deserved risen Christ,” Potts said. “We usually do projects like this through the Knights of Columbus or the Men’s Club to raise enough funds to do things that are aesthetically correct but not necessarily functional to make the church work, like air-conditioning or heating. This is like an extra plus, so we have to have extra donations to do things like this.”

Potts was instrumental in hiring professional artist and fellow Central Florida Watercolor Society member Rudy Drapiza to complete the project at a total cost of $500.

“I contacted Rudy, and he said, ‘I’d be glad to do it,’” Potts said. “He brought the scaffolding. I went out there and helped him in every way while he was up on the scaffolding, cleaning it first of all, and then painting it. Everyone in church so far has been ooh-ing and ahh-ing about it.”

It took Drapiza just five hours on March 6, despite rain.

“When you are painting outside and it’s raining, that’s a challenge,” Drapiza said. “The scaffolding is enough that I could reach one hand of the statue. I had to reach around and hold one hand of the statue while I was painting the face. We had to tie the scaffolding on the door of the church to keep it staying steady. When it rains, sometimes the paint runs.”

Drapiza also noticed a wasp nest, but it seemed to be empty.

“I think he left that day because it was cold,” Drapiza said. “The wasps and bumblebees love to stay in places like that. Sometimes there are pigeons or it gets too hot or too cold. Anything like that is a challenge, but nothing that we can’t solve.”

Drapiza thrives on such artistic challenges, he said.

“It’s always a challenge,” he said. “It’s just different. I’m used to working with a lot of 2-D, like on canvas. It’s challenging on 3-D because you have to make it look like the person. I like challenges: different projects, different kinds of media and things like that. If it has to do with paint, anything, I will do it.”

For this project, Drapiza said he used a variety of painting instruments, including rollers, brushes and a ragging technique.

“In my work, anything I can almost brush I sometimes use my hands and fingers to blend the paint on the surface,” Drapiza said. “It’s a lot of technique: Layers of paint are applied; there is glazing; sometimes you have to paint them and defend against crackles the weather can do to really beat it up.”

Part of that defense is a special paint Drapiza has used while working for a billboard company for 22 years, he said.

“The statue, they can’t remember where they ordered it, and the paint that was put there was for Fiberglas — it looks like a Fiberglas statue,” he said. “The process is I have to prime it and then do an acrylic, and then I tried to put on some of this paint that I use to make it stronger and able to stand the heat in the Florida sun. It’s the one I use to give it a longer life and keep it fresh.”

Billboards, statues and murals are among the projects Drapiza still paints by hand, even with modern technology such as computer imagery, he said. He hopes to pass on his craft to fledgling artists in the area through work with the Winter Garden Art Association at the SoBo Art Center.

“I’d like to say we are trying to educate the community to do the arts and entertainment, to involve the community and the schools,” Drapiza said. “We turned it into a place for arts and crafts and are trying to let the city know we are there. We’ll offer a summer camp and things like that, working on sculpture and visual work.”

Contact Zak Kerr at [email protected].