The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. John 1:5 NLT I’m feeling particularly proud tonight, because when I Googled the word “Chiaroscuro” to see how it was spelled, I discovered I already had it right. And to make it even better, I actually remembered what it means. But don’t...

Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame. ~Gilbert K. Chesterton

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. Thomas Merton

Remember He is the artist and you are only the picture. You can’t see it. So quietly submit to be painted — i.e., keep fulfilling all the obvious duties of your station (you really know quite well enough what they are!), asking forgiveness for each failure and then leaving it alone. You are in the...

Watercolor is, as its name implies, a wet medium. You can’t apply the pigment without water, and a good watercolorist takes advantage of the inherent properties of the paints. Rob O’Dell, an amazingly talented artist who just happens to be my dad (you would know that if you’d ever seen our freckled calves side by...

Everybody wants to talk about the front of the painting. You know, the canvas, the place where the paint was applied, where the artist’s talent (or lack thereof) is prominently displayed? But you know what? There’s a part that is rarely noticed — perhaps even the most important thing of all. The hanger. It holds...

An artist doesn’t magically know just how to mix paints to achieve the perfect shade or effect. Sure, over time, color mixing gets to be natural, but that’s not necessarily true at the very beginning. If you’re not careful and you add the wrong color, you’ll end up with something closely resembling mud, not the...

Today I’m posting over at Internet Café Devotions. You may have read this before, but if not, I hope you’ll click the link below to visit us there. But he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. Luke 18:27 ASV I started looking at this photo and could barely pull...

In Positano, I duck into a church, where street sounds are hushed and air stifles and Italian women genuflect, loudly kissing their fingertips and offering the gesture up to God. I automatically look up, to the tops of the beams and jewel-colored glass, knowing that the builders of these churches hid tiny details up high,...

Modern art scares a lot of people. What is the blue square supposed to mean? The squiggly lines? The warped, misshapen body? I don’t always know, but there are some pieces that I like, just because I do. On a gut level, judging solely by emotion, something in them resonates with me. But some pieces...