exploring insights & CREATIVE ExpressiON with God
Writing, Sketching, Doodling & Painting; Song, Sound & Movement
Ministry of the Word and Spirit.
Becoming more aware of God’s Nature & Presence.
What are we sensing, seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting.
Rest – Reflect
Respond – Record
Realign – Rework
Rejoice – Reveal
Sources of Inspiration
- The Bible as the written Word and our relationship with God
- The vastness and beauty of nature and the environment around us.
- The variety found in different people, places and nations.
Glory, Power and Majestic Grace
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power & Godhead… ” Romans 1:20
Journal Sketch
Endeavouring to portray a glimpse of who God is, His beauty, grace and freedom, in the way the Jacaranda trees are painted and the colours used.
Journal Sketch
An invitation to sit with Him and know the wonder of His Glory & Presence, as one can sense beauty when sitting under a flowering Jacaranda tree.
Journals
Faith & Art Journals are a great way to REFLECT and RESPOND to our surrounds and our thoughts, and to what God is showing us. Journaling presents an opportunity to RECORD these insights, feelings, words, pictures, colours and themes etc that come to us as we spend quality time in our sketchbooks with God & His Word, or out in His creation. It is a freeing way to express ourselves where our artworks don’t have to be pretty or finished or for other people but simply to enjoy the journey, have conversations with God, and explore art techniques and processes.
Journaling is a great tool for prayer, worship and reflection, and to REALIGN our heart with Gods heart, and to REJOICE. Its fulling to go on a journey with God and discover what treasures are unearthed, to further RESEARCH them and to artistically REVEAL them in a creative way, whether in paint, song, or writing etc.
Make visible the invisible
Acrylic Painting, by Gayle
Use Metaphors, Motifs & Symbolism
Through art, one way we can make known or make visible elements of the invisible nature of God is through the use of metaphors, reoccurring motifs and symbolism.
I often get pictures in my mind of something in the natural, like trees, that have a correlation or a comparison to something I see in the Spirit. Trees, for me, are both a reoccurring metaphor and motif in my journal sketches and art pieces, but it is how the trees are portrayed that can display certain characteristics or attributes of God. It is this quality that I often endeavour to capture in my Art Journaling, and that can be further developed on canvas.
For example ‘Majestic Grace’ as in the Jacaranda sketches above.
Metaphors – are used to draw a comparison between two distinct objects and highlight a specific idea.
Motifs – are objects and elements and often reoccur in different art pieces.
Symbolism – shifts the emphasis from direct representation. Instead of describing or painting something with precise realistic details, artists can use symbols, abstract or otherwise, to evoke a meaning or feeling instead.
eg. the dove as a symbol of the Holy Spirit or fire as the anointing of God.
“Menorah Light”
I am intrigued by metaphors, parables and stories that connect heaven and earth, that is, when something I see in the natural connects with the spiritual, and brings a greater level of understanding.
I love it when I have read something in the Bible and I get an inspiration as to how to express it in art form, and then I see something in the natural that relates to it.
For example: My watercolour sketch below “Menorah Light”
I painted this at a time I was meditating on several scriptures.
Scriptures:
Isaiah 11, about the 7-fold dimension of God; the Spirit of the Lord, of wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, revelation and fear of the Lord;
AND Zechariah 4:2 & Revelation 5:6, about the lampstand and the 7 pipes of oil that burn and bring light of His Presence.
It was around this same time that I was sketching in the park, looking out across Pumicestone Passage Bribie, and watching the sail boats catching the wind.
It all came together in this little watercolour. I can see the waves and the billowing sails, and I can also see the menorah – the lampstand with the lights burning, and the oil of the Lord’s Presence dripping down.
“Menorah Light” – Watercolour painting by Gayle
We especially need the light of the Spirit of the Lord and His anointing working in us in these days to ‘set sail’ and catch the wind of the Holy Spirit filling our sails to move and guide us in the right direction as we journey on in life in His wisdom.
Incidentally, why my painting and the image of the Menorah has 9 instead of 7 pipes/flames as does the original menorah, is because the Jewish rabbis added 2 more pipes to commemorate the Torah (the Word of God) and the continuous light of His Presence that didn’t go out during their festival.