Abstract // Acrylic // Watercolor
I began painting abstract paintings when our family was going through a really hard season. Painting was a very real form of therapeutic relief for me and I found the strokes that I would make spoke words I couldn’t speak and helped me to process things I couldn’t outside of the canvas. I also discovered that it was an unchartered path to connecting with God and when I had no words to pray I could paint and feel close and connected to and seen by my Creator.
As is almost always the case, when I discover something profound for myself, I want to share it with others, so I opened my home art studio and all of my supplies to other women and invited them to experience the same freedom and care I found in expressive abstract painting. And that began my art ministry, The Painted Prayer. My art ministry expanded to include children and teens and I began teaching Christian summer art camps and workshops for creatives of all ages in my home art studio, Wonder and Create Art Studio. Life took a chaotic turn after this and art was pushed aside as our family lived through some of the hardest years of my life, which I write about openly and you can read more about on my Substack Becoming.
I also enjoy sketching in pencil and pen and painting watercolor in my nature journals. I have recently returned to painting abstracts, as well as exploring and experimenting with other media, such as collage, and mixed media art journaling. I love working with unconventional materials, such as using a brown paper grocery bag for my canvas. I share a sampling of my body of work here and my nature journal pages here.
My paintings contain joy, gratitude, pain, trauma, delight, anger, confusion, anxiety, fear, peace and every other emotion that ran through my brush onto the canvas at the time. My paintings hold stories and prayers, tears and dreams. I hope my paintings will move you in some way but I know that as a collector, once you’ve purchased my painting, it becomes yours. It takes on a new life and has a new story to tell. Whether the scripture that inspired it or the description I’ve shared about it resonates with you or not, I pray the painting will bless you and all others who enjoy it in your home. Thank you for exploring my work.
"Common Clay Pot" 48 x 60 in; acrylic on canvas Inspired by 2 Corinthians 4:7-10 "Yet we who have this spiritual treasure are like common clay pots, in order to show that the supreme power belongs to God, not to us. We are often troubled, but not crushed,; sometimes in doubt, but never in despair; there are many enemies, but we are never without a friend; and though badly hurt at times, we are not destroyed. At all times we carry in our mortal bodies the death of Jesus, so that his life also may be seen in our bodies."
"When I Get to Heaven", 36in x 36in Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas, The Holy Spirit guided me to paint this painting, each figure, each stroke was Spirit-led. There are people here, families, even babies included, and they are all awaiting someone's arrival.
"Creation" 36x36; acrylic and oil pastel on canvas "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." - Genesis 1:1
"Straight Paths" 36 x 36 in; acrylic on canvas "In all your ways, submit to him and he will make your paths straight." - Proverbs 3:6
"Don't Call Me Mara" 24x18 in; acrylic on canvas "Don't call me Naomi," she told them. "Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter." - Ruth 1:20
"Because Free Will" 24x18 in; acrylic, chalk, oil pastel on canvas Inspired by a C.S. Lewis quote: "Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having."
"Swept Away" 36x24 in; acrylic, oil pastel on canvas "I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you." - Isaiah 44:22
"Rose of Sharon" 30x30in; acrylic and oil pastel on canvas "I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys." - Song of Solomon 2:1
"Portal" 36 x 48 in; acrylic on canvas "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." - John 14:6
"The Heavenlies" 36x48 Acrylic, Chalk, Oil Pastel on Canvas
"Above All Else, Guard Your Heart" 30x24 in; acrylic, oil, chalk pastel on canvas "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." - Proverbs 4:23
"Let the Fields Be Joyful" Diptych, 48 x 36 in; acrylic on canvas “Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy. Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.”- Psalm 96:11-14
"Deep Waters" 40x30 in; acrylic on canvas "When you go through deep waters, I will be with you." - Isaiah 43:2
"A Friendly Welcome to the Spies" 15x15 in; acrylic and oil pastel on canvas "By faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies." - Hebrews 11:31
"A Little Mushroom Study" 12x12 in; acrylic, paper, chalk, pencil on canvas "When God wants to make a mushroom, he does it overnight, but when He wants to make a giant oak, He takes a hundred years. Great souls are grown through struggles and storms and seasons of suffering. Be patient with the process." - Rick Warren
"The Only Way Out Is Through" 36 x 48 in; acrylic on canvas Inspired by a snippet from Robert Frost's 'Servant of Servants' and 1 Peter 1:6-7 "In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith - more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."
"He Lays Me Down In Green Pastures" 16x20 in; acrylic on canvas "He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters." - Psalm 2:2
"Eye See You" 40x30 in; acrylic on canvas Eastern Eyed Click Beetle
"Well Being and Calamity" 20x16 in; acrylic and oil pastel on canvas "I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things." - Isaiah 45:7
"The Morning Star Arises in Your Hearts" 20x16 in; acrylic, pencil and oil pastel on canvas "And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts." - 2 Peter 1:19
"A Land Flowing with Milk and Honey" 20x16 in; acrylic, oil pastel, chalk pastel on canvas "So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey." - Exodus 3:8
"Worship" 36 x 48 in.; acrylic on canvas "...therefore, I will celebrate before the Lord." - 2 Samuel 6:21
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all." - Helen Keller 48 x 60 in; acrylic on canvas
"Up All Night" Mixed Media on canvas 24 in x 36 in "I stay awake all night so I can think about your promises." - Psalm 119:148