Advent 2016 - Day 23, 19th December

Advent Day 23

These words are taken from the Advent hymn The King Shall Come When Morning Dawns and, again, fitted nicely with my day's readings.

Mark 10:45: For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
TFL!
Bernie x

Verse of the Week - 17th October 2016

Made for the Verse of the Week Challenge in the Digital & Hybrid Bible Journaling FB group.
You can find the group HERE if you'd like to join us!
Sometimes life can seem an uphill struggle but we are strengthened by the Lord.
TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - DNA - Week 16, 15th April - I Am in Christ

TMD 2016 - DNA - Week 16, 15th April - I Am in Christ
A bit later than I'd hoped but it's done!!

Based on John 15:1-5: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper 2016 - DNA - Week 13 Creative Prompt - 25th March - I Am Crucified with Christ

Take Me Deeper 2016 - DNA - I Am Crucified with Christ
Great video, you can find it HERE!
TFL!

Lent 2016 - Good Friday - 25th March

Lent 2016 - Good Friday - 25th March
TFL!

Bernie x

Lent 2016 - Day 41 - 21st March

Lent 2016 - Day 41 - 21st March
I felt really drawn to the dull grey colours this morning! One change of a blending mode and there they were! It just felt right!

 I like to see the grey and darkness as being forced back by the light. The beginnings of colours appearing as the tears being dried and the light and full joy of our Lord coming to His people. Not such a dreary piece after all then?!

TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper 2016 - DNA - Week 12 - 18th March - I Am Alive in Him

TMD 2016 - DNA - Week 12 - 18th March - I Am Alive in Him

I really appreciated this devotional! It really brought it home to me just how far I've travelled in my journey of faith!

With this as my background I think it made the devotional that much more powerful for me. Which seemed to mean creating the art piece was going to be that much harder!

It's almost as if the "I am crucified with Christ" and the "I am alive in Him" are too important; almost unapproachable from an art perspective!

So I really had no idea how to go about this, other than sitting there with Photoshop open and praying! It looks a pretty simple piece, but the PS work before the digital painting was anything but! I still don't feel altogether happy with it. Something about it unsettles me almost, but despite trying and trying different things, nothing I do helps that!

Plus, despite deciding not to add words to these art pieces, this piece demanded to have the "It is finished" added to it. Such powerful words!

Maybe I'll revisit this piece at some stage in the future; perhaps after Easter Sunday. Maybe I won't! For now, I offer it as it is and acknowledge the impact it is having on me at this time of searching and coming to terms with such a lot. The power of those words, and yet the comfort of them also. It seems I'm always learning about this faith-art process!
TFL!
Bernie x

Lent 2016 - Day 23 - 3rd March

Lent 2016 - Day 23 - 3rd March
Well, this one turned out to be anything but simple and quick! OK for a one-off but can't keep on like that! back to being ruthless tomorrow :)
TFL!
Bernie x

Lent 2016 - Wednesday 10th February 2016

Just a simple piece for the start of Lent. I intend to do some more of these...dare I say I'm going to try and create a piece every day?! This reading seemed appropriate for Day 1.

TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper 2016 - DNA - January 15th - Chosen by God

As I sit here writing this post, the wind is howling outside and there is a chance of snow! My daughters and I stayed up rather late last night to see if the snow previously promised for the early hours of Friday materialised! Had it started to fall, my youngest daughter and I would have been out in the garden taking photos lol! Can you tell it's a rare event nowadays that we get snow in my part of the UK?!

Sadly the snow didn't come so we went to bed hoping for a nice surprise when we woke. I overlaid of course, but was still up by 6.15am, but alas, no snow still!

So hubby and I sit and have a quiet coffee with the wind howling and the temperature a lot colder than of late and prepare to face the day. I'm still hoping for even just a little sprinkling of snow though!!

Take Me Deeper - DNA - 15th January 2016 - Chosen By God

I love Ephesians 2:10 - For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Also John 15:16 - You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit - fruit that will last - and so that whatever you ask in my name the father will give you.

I hope this piece gives a feel of being chosen, appointed! I've decided to stick with the digital painting as long as it works out and I have the time. This piece really wanted to be yellowy lol! I tried to make it more red but it wasn't having it!
TFL!

Bernie x

Take me Deeper - October Week 4

Having been awake at 4am for a couple of mornings this week, I've managed to have some time to create and so can actually post my piece on time this week! I'm so pleased with this piece and it's definitely one that will end up printed on canvas and up on my wall!

October Week 4 - Resurrection Life

I again read through everything I wrote back in April and what struck me was that each week it's reference to the Light that's speaking to me!

I found points I'd made, taken from a commentary:
- walk as people who are conscious that the light is among them.
- walk in the light, believe in the light. To walk in the light we must first believe and trust in the light. Faith is the way we can see the light. As we trust the light we see the light. Believe in the light and trust and trust Him who is it. Absolutely we may rely on it, unconditionally we must follow it.

Then I opened up Photoshop without really expecting much to happen in the short time I had available...but the piece was as good as done within 45 minutes! I was almost open mouthed as I chose texture images that provided suggestions of a cross and a hill. With just a little enhancement, the picture appeared! Love it!!

I think - hope! - the image suggests someone who is living and trusting in the light. Someone who has hope and faith to see the light. Someone who relies on the light and follows it unconditionally.

Various CU textures and brushes, border, plus one of the HKC Praise Him digital images.
TFL!

Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - October Week 3

I was up early this morning and inspired to create this!

October Week 3 - Journey to the Cross

I read the devotional and then again looked back at what I'd written in March this year. I think the feel of John 12:35-36 came through when I started creating...The light will be among you a little longer. Continue on your way while you have the light, so that the darkness will not come upon you; for the one who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Believe in the light, then, while you have it, so that you will be people of light.

I spent ages trying to create something that resembled the image in my head but it wasn't coming! So I gave up and just shifted around textures and shapes and this is what evolved! So I decided to call it done!

I wasn't planning a seascape, but I suppose it's suggestive of a journey! There's a hint of land in the distance and the cross stands ahead, surrounded by light.
TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - August Week 4

Wow another week has sped by without me seeing it! I was so inspired by one in particular of Diane Mara's videos showing  how she created a page with watercolour crayons, that I actually bought some myself...along with a few stamps and other bits and pieces! So at some time in the near future I shall become a mixed media gal and be once more playing with paint and ink on real paper! My youngest was so inspired also that she wants to play too! I think we know what our Art studies will consist of once the home edding year starts in just over a week! For now though, here's my digital piece for this final week of August! It's rather different but I like it and feel it makes a good summing up page.

August Week 4 - Peace of God, God of Peace

Having done all the suggested reading, I think it was Hebrews 13:20-21 that stood out for me most:
May the God of peace provide you with every good thing you need in order to do his will, and may he, through Jesus Christ, do in us what pleases him.

I had absolutely no ideas for my artwork! Then I looked up at the plain wooden cross I have hanging above my computer screen and the idea came to me to use that image alone with the feeling of peace from last week's piece!

It's against a background of dark, scratchy, brutality that can sometimes be this world, with dark coloured birds and flames to complete that image. The white birds represent peace and are in front of the cross, closer to us. There are three of course!


So there we have it! A relatively simple piece - the b/g made from a few textures blended with some brushwork for the splats, the fire and the birds. A custom shape to create the cross, with a bevel added, and then last week's image clipped to it. Created the hole and the chain links myself with a CU layer style added to them.

Not sure if it feels a bit dark but after the past couple of weeks, I think I needed to display the rest of the world as a dark and brooding place, with Christ's peace a bright light of happiness in stark contrast!
TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - April Week 1

Holy Week, leading to Easter. Such a momentous time; I can hardly believe it's here! 

I'm so lucky to be surrounded not only by family and friends IRL, but also by the lovely people at His Kingdom Come who are such an inspiration and a help on my journey of faith. I'm very thankful for them, especially at this time, when I'm reminded of how much I need Him..and how much I need to let go and trust that He will nurture and save, and also trust that He will work out every situation according to His will.

So to business!
April Week 1 - He Is Alive

I looked up definitions of the words given and was quite surprised! Just shows how you hear and say these words without knowing the full impact of them sometimes!

I found the following commentaries on a couple of them that drew me in...

Hosanna: "So as Jesus rode the donkey to Jerusalem, the crowds were correctly shouting 'Hosanna!' and acknowledging Jesus as their Messiah. A cry for salvation and a recognition that Jesus is able to save. The people cried out for salvation and that was exactly why Jesus had come. Within a week Jesus would be hanging on a cross."

Hallelujah: The words 'praise the Lord' are used over 50 times in the Bible but not as a translation of the word Hallelujah. Hallelujah is only used in Revelation 19. The scene opens in Heaven where a great multitude has gathered before the throne in the immediate presence of God himself, after the final overthrow of the enemies of the Church and the triumph of the Gospel. A song of thanksgiving is uttered in which all beings could unite. Hallelujah is the only word grand enough to express their rejoicing.

An image then came to mind of the path that has been in my March pieces, leading towards Easter, finally reaching its destination of the Cross. There would be light and the light rays as in previous weeks, as well as the path with flowers. I wanted the Cross not to seem sad and horrid, although of course it was. I wanted to pick up what was said in the devotional - that without Good Friday we could not celebrate Easter. Plus the feeling of Jesus being recognised as Messiah and being able to save. So I wanted it to be more positive, strong and not something looking like defeat.

I went on to read Revelation and in Rev. 22 found Jesus described as 'bright morning star.' So I added that to the piece as even more of a positive sign!

The colours are bright, not morbid, although I left some dark in the sky to acknowledge the evil and sadness. I drew out the size of the shadow of the cross to add impact and bring it right up to the viewer - drawing us in.

I'm hoping the light around the cross conveys a feeling of power and hope - all these feelings mixed up in one image for me! Yet having prayed before starting, this piece just flowed!

created with CU brushes and a CU cross and layer style.

TFL!
Bernie x