December 28, 2012
Jim Gregg
A few days ago we watched a Christmas show on Thomas Kincaid as he first started out on his Painters of Light. I remember saying that I always wanted to paint as he worked on a mural in his home town.
Ever since grade school I wanted to paint but never got a mastery of the art. I struggled and struggled. When I first went to Alaska I met Frank Suddoth who sat with me in the break room of the barracks and walked me through a mushy scene of a city sky line with a bridge.
Before we ever started Frank took me downtown Fairbanks and had me buy this and this and some more. It was quite expensive.
For years after I struggled to make the perfect painting. I would get a blank new white canvas and with fear start to paint on it, never wanting to ruin such a pristine thing.
I took art classes and instructions from books and videos. I signed up with a somewhat known artist at Kansas State University and got tied up in his struggle to express himself on a canvas. Deeper and deeper I fell into the trap to produce the perfect picture.
I have managed to create a couple nice paintings over the years.
After watching the Kincaid movie I went searching for some of his work. I found one that light up my eyes. I want to paint one just like that to have on the wall and feel so at peach looking at it.
Then I ran across several article about Mr. Kincaid. They were not so nice. If he was supposed to be a Christian artist, then what sort of Christianity was he painting? His works were labeled as ‘before the fall”; before sin came into the world. They all were perfect. Not a hint of decay, evil, bad, corruption. They were somewhat unnatural with every light on in the house to pull off his patented “Painters of Light” concept. No people were present even though doors and gates stood open to welcome you in to warm glow of the all to perfect scene.
This struck a chord within me. This is what I have tried to accomplish. Paint perfect pictures. The commentator then went on to show that to be a real Christian artist he should be showing the darkness of this world and the readily available salvation offered by Jesus Christ.
This struck a chord within my soul even more. Anna has predicted seeing me writing, which I did. My writings are not pretty pictures but the real sin filled world and the availability of a choice to have Jesus as your Lord and savior.
This is it! If I am to start painting again it must be to show sin and salvation. Not pretty dream worlds that lead to despair.
God has given me talents that lay deep within me and have been dormant and overgrown with the weeds and cares of this life. This is why I have been fruitless in my walk with Him. I know this to be true. I must let the painter’s talent arise from within and overpower me so that I may show the world a glimpse of God almighty.
I gave up painting for photography thinking that it removed the fear of the white canvas from me. But what did it really bring? Yes I have made some tense thought provoking pictures but the vast majority are just pretty pictures. Yes God has given me a great eye to capture the perfect scene which depicts the moment. But there is more.
I feel in my heart that painting what God has laid on my heart and revealed to my mind is what I should be doing. I feel at peace with this thought.
So now what?
I bought Art Rage for my Ipad and have started learning how to use it. I cannot let a steep learning curve hinder what I am to do.
I read and watched some on Prophetic Painting. Rely upon God to show me each step of the process. What size, canvas, colors, brush, emotion, feeling, impact, et. All. This is to be a process of God showing me what to paint. Not me painting what I think people want or need to see.
This will be like the watercolor I made in the 70’s of people spiraling to heaven and to hell after seeing a pattern in to floor at the Hutchinson Bible Chapel. Exactly that sort of painting.
People will look at a painting and fill in the gaps and derive what God wants them to see from it. I may even include some scripture or explanation of what I feel God is telling me.
Thoughts:
A Tree Of Life for me
Glimpses of Heaven – the tall music beast with notes being changed by the glassy sea
Colors and life of inanimate objects in Heaven
A sword against evil
Power
Love
Lost-ness
The fall of man
