Classes Are Starting Once Again!

I have six lessons planned for the next 7 weeks. Hope some of you can join me at Highland Heights Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tn on Wednesdays from 6:30 - 7:30.  Classes start Oct. 5.  Send me an email if you have any questions.  Here is the lesson for the first week.

The Sea is Full of Your Creatures

Psalm 104:24-25 - How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number, living things both large and small.

My husband and I often marvel at God's creation and how much fun He must have had as He created all of the landscapes and all of the animals. Some creatures are just funny, like the jellyfish. I'm not sure what purpose they have in the oceans of the world, but I do know that they are strange and mysterious, beautiful and frightening, silent yet look so musical, and very primitive creatures yet elegant. I had to make two jellyfish costumes for our school musical, Children of Eden, a few months ago. I watched video, looked at many photographs, and read a lot of information about these marine animals. They live in every ocean, in deep water and shallow water, and have been around for 800 million years. Apparently God likes these guys a lot! So I have been wanting to do some artwork with their stinging tentacles flowing and floating elegantly for a while. Psalm 104 seemed the best place for these images.

I used these paints.  

They have become my favorites for painting in my Bible. They are very easy to use, can be lifted a little. (Can even be erased.) I can use them without prepping the paper- no bleed through. They cover well, can be applied transparently or opaquely, dry to a very nice finish on the Bible pages, and they are very inexpensive. I also used a white gel pen for a lot of the lines and fine detail as well as the lettering. I painted around some of the white areas and just let the paper show through. I used no white paint.

The Grass Withers and the Flower Fades

Isaiah 40:8

The book of Isaiah is full of beautiful imagery:  eagles, vineyards, morning star, burning coal, and the potter and the clay.  Isaiah 40:8 tells us that even though seasons come and seasons go, year in and year out, through tragedies and horror, through eons and eons, the word of the Lord is the same. Doesn't that offer us wonderful peace and security and hope? Nothing else in life remains the same.  The word of the Lord is our anchor and our compass.

I love sunflowers in all there stages and have used them in so many pieces of art over the years.  So when I think about the flowers that fade, I have to illustrate the fading sunflower with it's drooping head and the sagging leaves that get crunchy and brown.  So many pretty colors, so many textures, so much beauty in the dying stages. Love them so much.

This illustration was done with Prismacolor colored pencils.

The Lord is My Fortress

Psalm 144:2 says He is my steadfast love and my fortress.

When I was a child I loved to be up in a tree.  I never had a treehouse, but I pretended that my home was in the tree that was in the yard next door.  I remember taking leaves and twigs and making plates and baskets. (When I was about 10 I saw the movie "Swiss Family Robinson, and  I would daydream about living in that treehouse.)  The feeling that you have when you are a kid way up high in a tree is like no other.  I remember feeling like I was above the world.  No one could find me.  I was safe.  I could see things from the tree that I couldn't see on the ground.  Our house was at the top of a small hill and when I was in the tree I could see all of the houses and their yards on our block.  I could see the highway and the drive-in movie theater in the distance. And I could even see some trees that lined a creek way in the distance.  It seemed to give me supernatural powers.  And when I climbed out of the tree all of the magic

disappeared.

That's what I think God's fortress is like. We are safe, we are strong, we are above the world, and we can see in the distance.  For me, God's fortress is like a treehouse.

This image was painted with watercolor pan paints and outlined with Micron 005 and 01.

Love Your Neighbor -

Mark 12:31

I spent a rainy Saturday morning in my Studio/Girl Cave with the windows open, drinking coffee, listening to rain and thunder, and journaling in my Bible.  It was wonderful -- just what I needed after a hectic few weeks. 
So here is what I created today in my Bible based on Mark 12:31. (But you can't read this without reading 28-35!) I concentrated on the "love your neighbor" theme, trying to think about which "neighbors" I don't like; I'm not kind to; I make judgements on, I ignore, I gossip about. There are way too many, and I am ashamed. I am going to do better. 

I didn't put any fences in this design as I originally intended. I didn't want any barriers so I create walkways and roads linking everyone together. I'm hoping and praying that this one inspires me to be kinder and gentler to everyone. The verse doesn't say I have to like them (loving and liking are two different things) , but I do have to treat them the way I want to be treated. I used one of those "watercolor" pans that are more like tempera or gouache, micron pens 005 and 01, and a white gel pen.

Are you a Sheep, or are you a Goat?

Matthew 25: 31-46

I am posting this very late since it was last week's lesson, but I know many  of you haven't seen it. And if you were not in class last Wednesday, we will be doing the sheep page this week. When I was in San Antonio visiting my daughter at Easter we Bible journaled together.  She designed these two pages. and I put my spin on it.   The scripture says that when the Son of Man comes in His glory He will separate the sheep and the goats.  The goats will be on His left and the sheep on His right. The rest of the passage describes how He will determine who (the sheep) have eternal life, and who will have eternal punishment (the goats).

Because I was in Texas I had Texas Hill Country images in my head - cactus, lots of rocks, sticker bushes, sticker plants, sticker everything, scorpions, and rattlesnakes.  So the goats had to be in the rocks and miserable stuff.  But also in the ruggedness of the Texas Hill Country there are beautiful wildflowers blooming in the spring - Indian Paintbrushes, Mexican Blankets, Evening Primrose, and the most beautiful and breathtaking Texas Bluebonnets. So I put the sheep in the bluebonnets.  It was Erica's idea to use the radiating design and add the spirals in gray on the goat side to make it look story. We used white spirals on the sheep side with Wink of Stella on top, but they do not show up in the photo.  I painted the animals with watercolors and added some white gel pen dots. Erica used Stampin' Up ink instead of watercolors.  I outlined the letters and the figures with an 01 Micron.

I made a mistake.  I meant for my words to say Goat and Sheep, but I put Goats. I wanted it to say, "Are You a Goat"  and "Are You a Sheep". But it ended up saying Don't Hang with the Goats... Be a Sheep.

We finished it off with silver Washi tape that we cut in half to make the line more narrow.  Confession:  I do not like Washi tape.  Just sayin'....  I hope I haven't offended anyone.......

See Erica's post about her journal here.