Study for "Sacrifice (The Boy Jesus among the Doctors)," the center panel of the "Heroism (David and Goliath), Sacrifice (Christ among the Doctors), Service (Young Solomon)" mural, Chestnut Hill Academy

The three preparatory studies that Oakley made for the murals at the Chestnut Hill Academy (now Springside Chestnut Hill Academy) are beautiful unto themselves, and they reveal a great deal about Oakley’s process. The artist first establishes the gestures of figures, the compositional elements, and the placement of color. In this image she applies a charcoal grid that would serve as a guide when she transferred the composition onto a larger canvas. Apparently she was unhappy with the figure of Christ at center, and she rubbed him out, redrawing the figure in a new pose that would be more commanding. Study for "Heroism (David and Goliath)" is a different sort of painting altogether that feels like an experiment with glazing and applications of thin layers and overlapping streams of paint.