Painting at church

1 Chronicles 16:29 Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name:
bring an offering, and come before him: worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness
In December 2012 I asked my pastor if I could begin painting during church services and to my surprise, he said yes! I set up a table in the back of the sanctuary where I could paint, so I would not be a distraction to others. This is not performance painting.  Most people at church just walk on by and never notice I'm there. It is an expression of my love and desire to worship my Lord and hopefully inspire others along the way. I thought it would just be an occasional thing, but, I ended up painting during every service that I attended, with the exception of time off for surgery last year. I would love to say that every time I paint, the Holy Spirit directs me, but, honestly, many times I don't have a clue what I am supposed to paint. I go home sometimes with paintings I am disappointed in, but, I do it anyway.  Painting during church services seems to be a new thing now.  Singing has always been a part of worship, but, visual arts has usually been misunderstood as a way to praise and worship in a spontaneous way.  Many churches are beginning to include it in their services, but, mostly where others are watching as they paint.  I'm too embarrassed to paint in front of others.  It puts too much pressure on me to have to please and perform something spectacular all the time.  Painting for me is an intimate expression of my love for Jesus and hopefully will touch others and point them to Jesus too.  God is the greatest Master artist ever. I can never come close to anything He has created, but, as I paint, I am in awe of God and He shows me a little more glimpse of His magnificent glory.  I see His fingerprints in everything He created and it brings me closer to my Savior.

In classical art, a student would often pay and study under the watchful eye of a Master artist for years.  He would try to paint in the same style as his master and if he was good enough, the master would often sign his own name to it.  When the student thought he was ready to go out on his own and start his own studio, he would give the master artist one of his best works for scrutiny and payment for the privilege of learning under the skillful eye of the master.  This final piece was known as the Master's piece. It is an honor to be painting in the Master's studio (church) and learn under the watchful eye of my Lord and Master. I pray that each piece will honor Him and "draw" people closer to Jesus.
As you can see from these paintings, almost all of them start from my imagination, instead of things that I see going on inside the sanctuary where I am painting.  This has really been a challenge for me.  I need to see what it looks like before I can paint it. I pray and ask the Lord what I should paint and trust that He will show me. My inspiration may come from a song, the sermon, or just a thought that pops into my head.  I don't have a vast reservoir of "image files" in my brain to refer to, to see what something really looks like.  If my imagination isn't enough, I may have to wait until I get home and look up on the internet for images that show what the structure of something looks like.  If I can't see it in my head, I have to hope I can find it elsewhere.  I used my own hands in the paintings because they are "handy" and ready models. Some of the paintings are only from my imagination, but some things had to be verified by looking it up.  For instance, how many candles are in a menorah, or what does a shofar really look like, things like that. So these paintings were started during church services, and finished over the course of several weeks, worked on sometimes at home, and more sessions at church.

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