You Make Beautiful Things....

Wooden cross in the prayer garden at our church

Happy Belated Easter!  I hope your holiday was wonderful and an amazing celebration of Christ's special gift of love and saving grace!  Our weeks have been full and busy.  I can hardly believe we are already halfway through April!  My, how time truly flies... 

I've been super busy creating the past few weeks.  I had the privilege of doing my first "live" painting during the Easter services at our church last week.  What an exhilarating, scary, but amazing experience it was!!  It was most definitely all God!  I prayed He'd show up and He never let me down!  It usually takes many hours to complete one of my artworks and when I was first approached I was thinking there is no way I can do a piece during the 3 to 4 minutes of a worship song.  But shortly thereafter, the ideas starting rolling and I knew God was speaking and gently pushing me to step out of my comfort zone!

 I knew I'd have to do a lot of the background layered work before hand.  The idea was to create as I usually do with multi layers of paint and collage elements but then leave some dramatic finishing touches to do while painting live.  I had to work larger than I normally do which was a challenge in itself!  I decided to use two (one for each service) 40" x 60" canvases.  Here is a peek at my process:

First layer of paint; getting rid of that intimidating blank, white canvas!

More paint (white blended into the center)

Both canvases in my studio

Collage papers

Placing collage pieces

Using matte medium to glue collage pieces down



A closer look!

I use found papers, scrapbooking papers, tissue paper and what ever else I can get my hands on in my collage work! 



Layering more paint and design elements



Notice the darker elements are around the edges and the lighter elements are in the center.  There is a reason for that....!

More layering

Here I'm adding actual bible pages from an old bible as collage elements

I love to tear my collage pieces!

My next step was to create a mask in the shape of a cross.  To do this I just tore poster board and taped it down with painter's tape onto each canvas.

My last step was to paint over the crosses to make them less noticeable. I also painted the outlying areas of the canvases a mix of black, dark crimson and red. I payed close attention to the edges of the crosses, making sure they were painted well and made sure some of the darker colors blended off into the surrounding background.

Now I was ready to paint live at the Easter services!!  I gathered up my paint, brushes, some printing supplies and a small cup for water and put them all into a black box to set underneath the easel on stage. Here is what happened next.....

Our worship pastor chose the song "You Make Beautiful Things" by Gungor and put together a wonderful arrangement that actually gave me around 8 minutes on stage.  It worked beautifully!

The paintings illustrate the separation between our sin and the saving gift of eternal life that Christ provides us with through the cross.  I wrote the words death and sin on the cross before pulling it off and revealing the pure, clean, softer colors underneath.  Hopefully the paintings share the true meaning of Easter with each viewer!



Close up after revealing cross



 

Me with my painting!! :)

I still need to add a few finishing touches to the paintings.  I always see areas that I feel need more layering or something else added.  I think I'll add some of the words from the song lyrics as well!  I'll post photos of the finished piece soon.  I think one will be on display in the church for a bit and then I'll put it in my Etsy shop.  The other one has already been requested for purchase!  Super excited about that blessing!! :)

My "One Little Word" for 2012



Photo Credit

Thank you so much to everyone who read my last post and for all of your kind comments, encouragement and prayers!  They mean more to me than you could know!!  I just love this blogging community and feel it is truly a gift to be a part of it!

As I mentioned in my last post, the last year, and especially the last few months, have been quite hard.  It has been a time full of heartbreak, loss, huge changes, growing pains and challenges.  But it has also been a time full of hope, answered prayers and the beginning of healing.  For this reason I've chosen Heal to be my "One Little Word" for 2012!

Photo Credit

I want to take this year and focus on healing. After all we've been through I feel like this is a time to rest, breathe, listen, learn and heal.  I'm excited about this new word!  I've been pondering how I can focus on healing and restoring my spirit.  Here are a few things I've come up with so far...

First, I am a daughter of Christ and He is the Great Healer!  No healing will come except through Him!

"He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds."  ~ Psalm 147:3

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I'm so thankful for this, for a God that I can go to for everything!  It is so important to me to spend daily time with my God.  I want to meet with Him, pray to Him, read His Word and grow to be more like Him.  I don't pretend to be perfect, and sometimes my day gets away from me and I haven't had that sweet, quiet time with Him, but I always want to try!  I know this is the only way to truly heal my heart!!

Next, I am an artist! 

"Create" by Jennifer Snellings
Mixed Media painting

"For this reason, I ask you to keep using the gift God gave you. It came to you when I laid my hands on you and prayed that God would use you." ~ 2 Timothy 1:6

My art has always been so healing.  It is a place I can escape from the realities of life and focus on my passions!  It re-energizes me, reconnects me, and feeds that special place that God created in me as a creative soul.  My art is nurturing to my heart, so I hope to spend lots and lots of time creating this year!!  It is also my prayer that God will use my art, in His amazing way, to impact others.  Serving and helping those around me is another way to bring healing to my heart!!

Finally, of course relationships can be so healing!  My goal is to make extra effort this year to nurture those most important relationships, with my God, my husband, my children, my family and my friends.  I want to make intentional efforts to spend quality time together and not let the busyness of life get in the way!  After all, life is so short and we don't know how much time we'll have with one another!

It is my hope and prayer that 2012 will be a healing year for you as well! 

Happy creating,
♥ Jennifer 

What I've been up to...

Here is a peak at what I've been up to lately. I've been feeling like I'm in a bit of a creative rut. I've had a tough time moving forward with this one; have several ideas, just can't make them come to life the way I'm seeing them in my head. That can get so frustrating!

This background was created using acrylic paint, scrap paper, a page from a book, and stamps on a canvas board.

Here I added the tree using torn pieces of magazine pages. I love the rough look it gives to the tree bark.   Before it is finished, I will go back over it in places with some paint to tie it into the background a bit more.


I'm also feeling like I need to make time to just "play"; get out my art supplies and just see what happens. I've felt drawn back to my roots lately...throughout high school and college my focus was on watercolor and I haven't done anything in that medium in a long time. I'm wanting to get those out again and see what happens! What do you do when you feel you're in a creative rut or you are just having a hard time getting motivated?

Vertu: An Art Exhibit

I'm super excited to share that two of my mixed media paintings were selected to be in a juried gallery show.  This is my first juried show!  I took the leap of faith and decided to go for it; the worst that could happen would be that they said "no thanks".  I'm so honored that my pieces were chosen and my work will be shown along side such amazing local artists!  The Artists' Reception is July 9th and I'll be sure to take lots of pictures to share!!  If you are in the Dallas area, my work will be up throughout the month of July at the Artists' Showplace.

New Painting!

I had hoped to post this much sooner, but life has thrown us a few curve balls lately. I've had some health issues come up, but I'm hanging in there. The hardest part is how much I've missed painting! I can't wait to get back to it very soon!! :)

This is the piece I created for our church's Easter Show. I've called it My Salvation and the verse is from 1 Peter 1:8-9, "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls". I was trying to illustrate the inner feelings of my relationship with Christ. How even though I can't see Him, I know He's there...protecting me, loving me, guiding me and teaching me. He is my joy and He is my salvation! I am so thankful for my relationship with Him!

It is mixed media on canvas with acrylic paint, collage, and painting crayons.

Thanks so much for visiting! I hope to be back soon with a post about my new, reorganized studio space! Hope you are all enjoying your day and finding some time to be creative!!

Take care!

Jennifer