Closing Out Women’s History Month: The Making of Signal Graces

Artist With Final Work: Signal Graces (2019). A moment of completion before the solo exhibition at the Butler Institute of American Art.

Closing Out Women’s History Month: The Making of Signal Graces

By Chantell Van Erbé

As Women’s History Month draws to a close, I’m sharing a more intimate look at one of my most personal works—Signal Graces, completed in 2019. Below are step-by-step photos of the painting’s development, offering a glimpse into the layered process behind its creation.

1. Initial Sketch on Prepared Panel. The composition begins with a loose white outline over the warm gray ground.

Signal Graces was the last piece I finished for my solo exhibition at the Butler Institute of American Art that same year. It was created during a time of immense personal challenge—while navigating family illness and eventual loss. There was a quiet urgency behind every decision I made with this piece. I was racing time, in a way, hoping that my mother would be able to see the work before her health declined further. That urgency is woven into every layer.

2. First Layer of Color: Upholstery and Sky. The patterned wingback chair and glowing sky begin to emerge, setting an emotional tone.

Psychologically, this painting explores the emotional terrain of childhood—not through trauma alone, but through the complexity of memory. There’s unease, yes, but also introspection, mystery, and moments of unexpected connection. It centers around my younger self in a communion dress, seated in a tattered wingback chair, surrounded by symbols both spiritual and earthly. The skeletal remains of a cat. An overturned goblet. The faint carving of a girl’s name—Jean-Anne—who died before we ever met, yet whose presence felt inexplicably close during my school years.

3. Establishing Environment and Structure. The background and tiled floor are blocked in—shapes of figures and architecture take form.

In the pews, faceless religious figures echo the blurred boundaries between guidance and silence. Penelope M. Simone—my childhood best friend and blood-sister—is among them. Her presence speaks to the strength and loyalty we shared, and still share to this day. The churches in the background—Saint Michael’s Monastery and Saint Matthew’s—are not merely structures, but emotional landscapes, central to my early development.

4. Defining Depth and Landscape. Trees, ruins, and smoke deepen the narrative; contrast builds around the central figure.

Technically, the painting measures 40 x 30 inches and was rendered in mixed media on a panel I prepared myself. I began with a warm gray mother color, setting the tone before building the work with acrylic and colored pencil. The process, like the subject, was layered—reflecting both the inwardness and the discipline of mark-making.

5. Blocking in the Negative Figure. The first layers of pale blue in the face and hands signal the beginning of the “inverted” effect.

Looking back now, I see Signal Graces not only as a meditation on faith, but as a deeply human record of persistence. It reminds me how art can hold many things at once—urgency and care, grief and reflection, history and invention.

6. Refining the Glow. The spectral figure intensifies, emerging from the chair with quiet intensity.

Sharing these behind-the-scenes images feels like a fitting way to close Women’s History Month—not by highlighting only finished work, but by honoring the full journey of making it.

7. Final Composition: Signal Graces (2019). Mixed Media on Hand-Prepared Panel, 40 x 30 inches. The completed work integrates memory, symbolism, and emotion into a hauntingly unified vision.

Want to See the Full Journey?

Watch the Making of Signal Graces.