The paintings below are all inspired by the Bible and the Christian Faith.
These paintings are all covered by copyright but that is waived if you intend a painting to be used for an evangelical purpose and make a request via email. I would also consider making them available to any Church or Church group providing arrangements were made for their collection and safe return.
Adam and Eve
Mankind according to the Bible is male and female. They were designed for each other, called into being by God to form a single unit: into a life long marriage in order to procreate and nurture their children and to love and support each other. Sex was to be seen and enjoyed within these contexts.
The Flood and Noah’s Ark
Why flood the entire earth?
“The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.”
The Hebrew word signifies not only the imagination, but also the purposes and desires.
PART ONE: OLD TESTAMENT PAINTINGS
When Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead He will deal finally with His enemy and strip Satan of every power. The scriptures tell us not to pursue vengeance: Vengeance is mine says the Lord.
The world is under Judgement. We do not know exactly when but we do know why. The Holocaust is just the worst of many atrocities caused by sin and rebellion against the God who made us.
I called this painting The Heart of Darkness for obvious reasons. The natural need to see a form of justice that is perfect and complete, and includes those who had avoided in life the just penalty for their crimes against humanity is something everyone of us cries out for: we need to know that justice will be done and that the innocent will not be forever lost and forgotten and unrewarded.
Between midday and three p.m. a darkness descended over Jerusalem and far beyond according to some witnesses, including pagans writers. This is recorded as happening on the exact date of the crucifixion of Jesus. The account of this darkness is found in the Gospels and was being related within the lifetimes of many of those who would have witnessed the execution of Jesus. To my knowledge there is no account of this version ever being challenged by the Jewish or Roman authorities.
The greatest empire in all history could only watch, powerless to prevent the greatest event in all history: the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
That same Jesus will return to bring final judgement on the sin of mankind who will have abandoned its God and Creator in order to worship itself.
Following all of the above there will be the promised new creation. Isaiah depicted it as nature entirely at peace, predator and prey is a thing of the past, lost to memory.
“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation 21 v 4
The Parable of the Sower: the seeds are always good, but the ground is not always receptive.
The Storm on the Lake: Jesus sleeps while experienced fishermen panic
at the raging of the seas.
Blind Bartimeous is healed by Jesus and walks away from his only possession, which is his cloak.
The Saviour of the World is Born.
The full picture. Jesus, also called Immanuel, which means God with us, is born of a virgin in a stable in Bethlehem as a result of a decree demanding a census by the Emperor Augustus Caesar.
Jesus welcomes children, prays for them and tells us that unless we become like little children we cannot enter the Kingdom of God. They can teach us the meaning of faith and trust.
The prodigal son returns to the father he has dishonoured, and his father runs to greet him and forgives without hesitation or reserve. Jesus in this parable speaks about the nature of God the Father.
Jesus prays over a dead girl, the daughter of Jairus. She is restored to life and to her family. Jesus the giver of life, is Lord even over the ultimate enemy: which is death.
Mary Magdalene was healed by Jesus. This painting depicts her before that meeting with her Saviour. Finding a sign of hope in a small flower thrusting through the dust and ashes.
This painting of Martha and Mary was one of my earliest, but it tells a story about who was the more sensitive to the ways of their Master and Lord.
The Pharisees tried to trick Jesus over a point of Law. A woman taken in the act of adultery is forgiven and the men prepared to stone her to death are sent away shamed.
This is a detail from a much larger painting. Jesus was crucified between two criminals.
Jesus tells a parable about a rich man who throughout a long prosperous life gave no thought about the beggar who sat outside his gates. The parable tells us that there is no going back, God’s judgement when it comes is final.
The meal at which Jesus institutes the Communion or Eucharist: the Last Supper. His disciples gather round him unsure about almost everything concerning the future.
Peter betrays Jesus, and as prophesied denies all knowledge of knowing him and runs for his life. I think he was brave to have followed Jesus as far as he did, right into the courtyard of the high priest. Courage has limits and Peter for this moment came to the end of his. His desperation at that moment must have been near unbearable. Following the resurrection Jesus restores Peter to his position as head of the Church.
Abraham and Isaac
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Genesis 22
Ruth and Boaz
Ruth was a Moabite.
The book of Ruth is one of the most moving and beautiful stories ever told. The painting depicts what amounts to a proposal. As a result of this marriage they became ancestors of Jesus. Ruth and Boaz appear in the genealogies of Jesus Christ
Gomer the wife of the prophet Hosea
The prophet Hosea is told by God to marry an unfaithful woman: a harlot. The story tells of the faithfulness of the one as opposed to the constant unfaithfulness of the other. It is almost a parable of the relationship God has faithfully endured with his human creation.
Why does His love endure? Because He cannot bear to give us up.
How far will He go? As far as the death of His own Son. And in case you think a heartless father sent his son to do the dirty work then think again. His own Son. Jesus Christ said of His Father: “The Father and I are One!”
At the House of the Potter
Jeremiah 18:
“This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.”
God does not give up, He, like the potter begins again with the same clay. Firstly through Noah and his family and finally through Jesus the Saviour of mankind: the old clay transformed and raised to new life.
Lot and his two daughters escape from Sodom
One of these two girls becomes the ancestral mother of the Moabite people. The story below about Ruth and Boaz could never have happened if this woman had not been saved from the destruction of Sodom.
The Lion and the Lamb
I know this painting is a repeat from the New Testament section, but it deserves to be included again since it is from an Old Testament quote: Isaiah 11.
The first line of this passage is a strange reference, but it relates to the expected Messiah being born into the royal line of David. Jesse was the father of King David. It is no coincidence that Jesse’s father was Obed who was the son of Boaz and Ruth. All part of the family line of Jesus that begins with Adam and his son Seth.
“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—
and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
PART TWO: NEW TESTAMENT PAINTINGS
