Squint More: September 2010

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Orange Glow completed 9/9/2010

Late day warm light is great! That's what drew me to paint this one. The location of this painting is in Cedar Hill, Tn. We'll be painting there soon in pleinair with the Chestnut Group ... I'm certainly looking forward to that! 20"x16" oil on masonite.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Peaceful Place completed 8/12/2010

Here's the second painting that was entered in the Roswell, GA paintout. The water was basically finished on the first day, so the rain didn't really effect me to bad at this location. This painting is 16"x12" and 'Inclined to Hear' is 10"x8". Both are painted on linen and the medium is oil. Both are for sale, if you are interested.

Inclined to Hear completed 8/12/2010

I entered a paintout in Roswell, GA last month. This was the first paintout for me and it lasted for three days. Each of the 75 artists could enter only two paintings and the paintings couldn't be touched up in the studio ... so, it was totally a pleinair competition. This is a painting from under the Vickery Creek walk across bridge. I arrived late and only had two days to paint ... the plan was to pick a morning spot/painting and an evening spot/painting for two days. These would be my two paintings to enter into the competition. The sunlight would be basically the same. However, it rained BIGTIME the night after the first day. The creek waters were about one and a half feet DEEPER on the morning of the second day and the water went from being very transparent to being opaque and muddy! I had to finish the painting from memory. The best part was that I won second place with this painting! Thank you, Lord ... for an experience that I'll never forget!!

Heaven ... Will You Be There?

We don’t know when God will allow us to take our last breath. And for all you know, you may not wake up tomorrow morning. Christ could come back in 5 minutes! Now that would be an awesome thing if you know that you will spend forever in heaven, but it is a devastating thought if you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your savior, and besides heaven, hell is the only option left. Either you are saved or you aren’t. There is no in between, and it doesn’t matter if you were a “good person”.

Romans 3:10 says “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:”, and Romans 3:23 says “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”. Now, you may say that you have never sinned. Lying is sin, and I am sure you can remember a time when you have lied. Or maybe you have committed a so-called bigger sin. You may not have murdered someone, but Proverbs 23:7a says “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he...”. Have you thought about it or about any sin? Yes, you have. Romans 5:12 tells us where sin came from. It says “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned;”. This is talking about when Adam sinned back in Genesis by disobeying God when he ate the forbidden fruit.

Now, there is some bad news and some good news. Romans 6:23a tells us the bad news and it says “For the wages of sin is death;...”, and this means that our payment that we earn when we sin is death (hell). But, the good news is that the last part of that verse says (Romans 6:23b) “...but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”. Isn’t that awesome? Christ will give us eternal life in heaven! You may think, why and how would he give us this awesome gift.

Romans 5:8 says “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” He gave us this gift because he loved us so much, even while we were sinners, and he was able to do that because he died for us. But like all gifts, it isn’t enough for someone to want to give you something. You must take it, and claim it. And anyone can accept it, no matter what your past contains. Romans 10:13 says “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Notice the word “whosoever”. It means anyone! Romans 10:9-10 tells us exactly what we must do to accept this gift. It says “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God that hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” 1 John 5:11-12 also talks about salvation. It says “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”.

God is very loving, but do not be fooled. God is serious. If you do not accept salvation, you will be condemmed to hell forever. John 3:36 says “He that believeth on the Son hath life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”.

You might say, ‘Well, who is Jesus that He can do or offer such a thing as eternal life?’ I love to teach this truth! Jesus is the creator of all things! You are probably thinking that there’s no way that that could be true ... I used to think the same way. However, the Bible is VERY clear that Jesus is the creator. Study the first chapter of John. The verse that I like to show is Colossians 1:16 ... it says, “For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him”. The God who created all things died for us ... to pay the penalty of all our sin. Past sins, present sins, and future sins ... you’ll not be in heaven some day if you’ll not believe that He died for you and ask him to save you. Please do so today!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Orange Glow completed 9/9/2010

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Peaceful Place completed 8/12/2010

Inclined to Hear completed 8/12/2010

Artist Information

2012 prices for portraits

Portrait of John S.

Portrait of Carla S.

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Heaven ... Will You Be There?