Painted live during worship at Victory Christian Centre in Fort Erie, Ontario, Sunday February 15th, 2015. See more live performance paintings by Melani Pyke here. Having been given the freedom to paint anything, I challenged myself to approach this blank canvas this morning without a plan in mind, no reference photos in hand, and leaving it open to what God wanted to say to those in attendance simply through line and colour as I went.
I began with a diagonal stripe across the canvas, dividing sky from land which reminded me of the way God created the world in Genesis 1. I painted swirls of white around the bottom half like a rose, I had been bombarded with rose images lately, being Valentine's day weekend. I layered over this with the portrait of Jesus and developed it in layers until the expression on his face seemed to be that of a loving father. I kept the painting sketchy and left my brushstrokes rough and quick so the image would be like a dream, not too clear. The young child hugging Jesus seemed appropriate and fit just right in the centre area; I added highlights and dark areas to the hair and clothing. I brought back the roses as the background, with the greenery coming up the left side to frame the figures. White roses traditionally symbolize purity, innocence, sympathy, spirituality. Early tradition used white roses as a symbol for true love. I painted some stars and a dove's wings in the heat of the sunset area, and then later discovered an eagle in the blue of the sky which I only noticed after I was finished and had moved to the back of the room!
Highly symbolic, this painting has been well received and I hope that it continues to bless viewers and help bring them closer to their heavenly Father. I've titled it Embrace, you can see the full description including price etc. by clicking here.
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