Fire

At the last Expressions night at my local church, I started this painting.  I had the impression of a wave of fire during Sunday worship a couple of weeks before, so I gave it a go.  I feel that this is what God is doing among the church right now, and that it is a beautiful thing.  The encouragement here is to embrace what God is doing, acknowledging the pain of His refinement and of our growth, but embracing it and enduring it nonetheless.  He does beautiful things in our lives if we let Him lead us through the fire.

The Apple Tree

I saw this picture while praying for a friend and at first I thought it was for her.... but after actually creating it, I was drawn into a state of meditation about it.  The apples are slightly heart-shaped and my thoughts were focused on them for a long time.  I felt very much like the picture is for me and speaks about how I am to love others - love being the fruit on the tree.  The tree represents what God has planted and grown in my life.

Blooming

I went to an ArtWorship Workshop on Saturday at the C3Centre in Nunawading, and it was great.  Lots of artists, mostly female, painting spiritually meaningful pictures.  Admittedly, it was a bit intimidating to be surrounded by so many talented artists!  But at the same time, it really encouraged me to see God raising up people to use art in the context of their relationship with Him.  I just love being able to express something of God's heart to other people through art, but He also uses it to speak to me as well!

So here's my effort from Saturday, 'Blooming,' using oil pastels.  It speaks to me about the fruit of the healing work that God is doing in my life - the pain is worth the peace that follows.

I've been playing in the rain.... not really!

Here I am with my first mosaic piece!  Thanks to Leanne, who showed me how and helped along the way...  I think I'll try and put a piece of mirror in it, that'll be nice.

His sun is rising on me

'His sun is rising on me'

Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. Isaiah 60:1

I just had a colour in mind for this one - yellow. I felt God tell me that it was going to be a sun rising/arisen and that it followed from my last painting about the dawn. It makes perfect sense to me - as His light comes more and more into my life and washes away the guilt and things of the past, the more He is shining in me and through me. I really wanted the light from the sun to radiate out from it and felt that this is like His light shining in me which radiates out. It cannot be contained or locked away, as that is the exact opposite of the nature of light.

Jesus and me safe together

For Izobelle:

'Jesus and me safe together'

I did this at a time when everything around me and inside my head was very stressful, and the only place I found peace and comfort was in Him.

Spring

'Spring' I have been feeling very excited inside lately, like God's going to do something new. Today I played in the backyard. I love how God seems to put stuff in my paintings -there's a cross in the background which I didn't intend to paint. The small delicate flowers are for spring - new life - hope. In the background is the dawn of a new day.
Note the cardboard and sticks on the ground. I didn't use any brushes this time. I always feel like a child when I paint, and sometimes what comes out looks like a child's drawing to me, especially when I set out to paint something real, like sunflowers. It's much less stressful to paint with only a few feelings and some colours in mind. That works much better for me.