The Peaceable Kingdom

The story behind my largest altarpiece painting

Jan 12, 2026

Oil on Birch, 76 x 102 inches (Framed), 2025

Hello and welcome to my new Substack subscribers,

This week I am sharing the inspiration behind my painting The Peaceable Kingdom with a new short film produced by Nate Mancini and scored by Zac Tiessen. It first premiered at the artist talk for my Solo Residency Exhibition at Moshava Art Gallery in New York City, and is now available on my YouTube channel. I hope you enjoy it!

This painting is part of a forthcoming series that I will be developing over the next several years around the theme of human and animal “misfits.” This specific work is a contemporary interpretation of Isaiah 11:6-9:

The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

The inspiration for this painting came many years ago, as I was working on my Streams in the Wasteland series beginning in 2015. That body of work was based on the zoological motifs in the book Isaiah, of wild animals inhabiting the abandoned ruins of Babylon. I was intrigued by how the prophet foresaw a future peaceable kingdom without animal predation, where “the wolf will live with the lamb” (11:6). The pairings of natural enemies (leopard/goat, cow/bear, lion/ox) led by a child playing with a viper, can be read through an ecological lens of symbiosis between humans and the natural world. I wanted to paint a contemporary interpretation of this passage, but ran out of time before my debut international solo exhibition at Jonathan LeVine Projects in 2019.

In 2023, upon further prayer and meditation on this scripture, a more fully formed idea emerged. I drew the concept in my sketchbook and was pleased with it, but I now needed a child model willing to handle a snake! My church held a baptismal service in Lake Ontario, and I was so impressed by the theological depth in the testimony of a young boy named Boaz. I got to know his large homeschool family, and heard about their hobby farm with chickens, pigs, sheep and goats. Boaz has a gentle affection for these creatures, even reaching in with his little hand to help a mother ewe give birth to her lamb in the middle of the night. Upon my hearing that he wants to become a part-time veterinarian and part-time preacher when he grows up, I knew he was the right child for my painting. At nine years old he was so brave, allowing the snake handler to drape an Albino Ball Python around the staff on his shoulders for the photoshoot.

For the format, I referenced Matthias Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece (1512-1516), a polyptych (multi-panel) painting of the crucifixion. Another historical work that informed my composition was Edward Hicks’ The Peaceable Kingdom (1833-1834), which he painted over sixty times throughout his life. While it was tempting to simply replicate the animals in the biblical text, in addition to the farm animals I incorporated vulnerable, extinct, and pre-historic mammals and dinosaurs. I also highlighted species that have been cruelly bioengineered and overlooked, such as the fluorescent “glowing” rabbit (spliced with a jellyfish). My intention was to be in dialogue with contemporary attempts at de-extinction and gene-editing, which are grotesque animal experiments that tamper with the natural order. Although seemingly far-out, I pondered what kind of redemption the Creator will provide for these “misfit” creatures.

The child, in modern-day clothing, leads this troupe of animals emerging from a war-torn industrialized landscape. The scene presents the liminal space between a fallen world and the breaking forth of New Creation. The black sheep and mother pig and piglet are at the forefront, representing this upside-down kingdom.

Thanks for reading,

Josh

If you would like to inquire about purchasing or temporarily exhibiting The Peaceable Kingdom, please reach out.

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