Merry Christmas!

"For Unto Us A Child is Born"

"Bethlehem"

Mixed Media

11"x14"

Christmas Blessings to all as I share with you the above artwork I painted at our Wednesday night Worship Service, December 21, 2016.  It was a special evening with out annual "Cookies & Carols" service in the historic sanctuary at St. Andrews Mt. Pleasant.  My easel was within the altar rail to the left of the empty manger which was later filled with bells as each person in the congregation came forward and placed a tiny bell in the manger, a symbolic offering of his or her gift to the Christ Child.

The painting surface had been prepared a while ago - I built the surface with several layers of collage using various papers, many of them thick to build the rocky texture and some of the building shapes. I also tore a page from an old hymnal and collaged part of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" on the surface.  Although it's been painted over, you can still see the words of the song if you look closely.

This is not a realistic depiction of the town of Bethlehem; instead, I love to use collage to express my emotional response to places and events.  And when the painting is created as an act of worship, there is usually a spiritual dialogue that happens. In this painting, several of the areas where I painted openings, doors or windows suggested caves - and that was a gift to me to discover those as I painted - because I've been to Bethlehem 3 times and the Church of the Nativity is actually built over the grotto or cave that is the traditional birthplace of Jesus Christ.

Artists for Emanuel - Bidding open now and Big FREE Event Wednesday!

Artists for Emanuel - Straight From the Heart

90 SC Artists came together to create works of art as a healing endeavor for the families of the Emanuel 9, the community and the artists themselves. All of the artwork is available to be viewed and also to be bid on at the Bidr site.  All proceeds will be donated to Coastal Community Foundation Unity Fund which was set up to support long-term solutions to racism and economic inequality in response to the shooting at the Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston on June 17, 2015.

There will be a reception for the public on Wednesday, November 11 at the Cigar Factory on East Bay Street from 6-9 p.m.  The reception is free (a $10 donation will gladly be accepted at the door).  We would love to see you there!  Bidding ends at 8:30 p.m. 11/11/15.

Below is my artwork for the event, with my full write-up.  Those of us with English majors tend to be more wordy than others, and my second paragraph below could not be included on the Bidr site because of space requirements.  I include it here because it explains the meaning of the illumination  which I created to complete the painting.

"Rest"

Mixed Media

18x18"

I painted “Rest” (without the illuminated page) at an evening worship service on June 17, 2015; it was our last Wednesday night service until the end of summer, and this painting was an abstract interpretation of entering into a season of rest.  I was unaware of the horror and tragedy unfolding that same evening downtown in another church, Mother Emanuel AME.  Nine godly men and women entered into eternal rest that evening, and I have created and infused an illuminated page to complete the painting in honor of The Nine.

23 karat gold was randomly used in the original piece and also used to gild the illuminated page which was created on vellum much the way it would have been done in the Middle Ages and using dip pen and ink for the scripture, Isaiah 30:15. The torn and distressed edges of the page represent the tragedy of that night. The deep blue represents Heaven, and the nine gold circles represent The Nine, each now whole, complete and encircled by the Presence of God.

Hope to see you all there!

Painting from the Order of St. Luke Conference

"The Spirit"

Mixed Media with 23K Gold

16x20"

I was honored to be asked to paint at the Saturday night worship and speaking session of the 2015 North American OSL Healing Conference held at Seacoast Church in Mt. Pleasant, SC this past week.  OSL is an abbreviation of The Order of St. Luke (OSL) - the Physician which is an ecumenical ministry of Christian healing.  The ministry is comprised of physicians, nurses, medical personnel, clergy and laypeople, all of whom consider themselves vessels through which the Holy Spirit heals and ministers; their testimonies are a powerful witness that God is active, present and continuing to heal people today.

St. Luke is the patron saint of physicians; he is also the patron saint of artists, so it was a pleasure to represent that at the conference.  Last night's event was open to the public and the speaker was Joanne Ellison, whom I've known since high school. Joanne is a noted author, speaker and founder of Drawing Near to God Ministries at St. Andrews, Mt. Pleasant where we both attend church.

It was interesting that many attendees had never seen an artist painting at a conference or worship service so I spent some time after the session was completed talking with various people about how I started, how I approach the process spiritually and the logistics of preparation (all of which is contained on my website ameliawhaley.com).

Another Wednesday Night Worship Painting

"Jerusalem"

Mixed Media

11x14"

A different take on Jerusalem, a city that ends up in a lot of my artwork, whether it's painted during a worship service or in the studio.  This piece was painted over 2 Wednesday services at St. Andrews, Mt. Pleasant and has a sculpted, 3-D quality to it.  I started with a canvas panel and began building the foundation with gesso and torn paper, some of it heavy card stock.  What I enjoy about working this way is that it's difficult, if not downright impossible, to be too realistic.  You literally have to deal with the bumps and ridges, and I like the surprises that happen along the way as the shapes begin to determine what goes where.  I used a little watercolor to begin with but quickly changed to acrylics and then coated the finished piece with matte medium.

While Jerusalem is certainly a geographical place, it signifies far more than that for me and for many others.  My paintings of Jerusalem come from deep within and don't fall into set category.  I just know that whenever I paint it, the colors flow onto the paper or canvas.

Wednesday Night Worship Painting

"Olives"

Mixed Media

18x18"

Painted during last Wednesday night's Creative Worship Arts Service with our rocking' worship band and a great talk by the Reverend Rob Sturdy at St. Andrews, Mt. Pleasant.  I changed the background after I got home - I had painted it 2 coats of cad red light but there's not great light where I set my easel up at church so sometimes I don't realize I need to change a color until I'm home.  Anyway, since I was using acrylic paints, I just poured rubbing alcohol on the background and rubbed it with paper towels, ending up with a pale pinkish orange. Then I glazed the background (when in doubt, glaze, glaze, glaze...) with a transparent quinacridone golden color which has a real zing to it.  I really like using that color with the olive theme because it reminds of the richness (physically and spiritually) of olive oil.

Worship Painting at Karitos Charleston with Vivien Hibbert

"Open The Ancient Doors"

Mixed Media

16x20"

SOLD

We had a great worship arts weekend at KaritosCharleston WorshipArts last weekend.  Above is my painting from Friday evening - lots of collage and texture in this piece, including part of "Joy to the World" from an old hymnal.

St. Johns Parish on Johns Island hosted the weekend - they have a fabulous contemporary parish hall space which easily converts to an contemporary worship space.  It was great to see the parish hall named after one of my favorite people and priests, Charlie Walton.  

Vivien is an amazing woman of God - musician, worship leader, teacher and speaker.  I heard her several years ago when I painted at Karitos in Chicago (the parent organization) so it was a real honor to be asked to come to this conference and paint during the worship services.  

The conference had a wonderful crowd throughout and represented were worship leaders, musicians, singers, artists, poets, writers and dancers.  Vivien taught us the importance of everything working together in a worship service to  - we're familiar with the collaboration of music and word/preaching on Sundays - the songs reinforce the scriptures and the theme for that day.  But Vivien brought it to a whole new level and taught us how we can bring it all together through the Holy Spirit and explain it to a congregation that's not familiar with some of more creative worship forms that can be used to reinforce what God is saying in very powerful and surprising ways - and when everything works together, everyone "gets the message".  For instance, we started with a piece of worship art - the dancers were asked to interpret the art through dance, then the group was asked if anyone had a scripture or a poem that interpreted the piece of art (I was stunned at the poetry and prose, inspired and written within minutes) and then the songs came with singers spontaneously singing interpretations.  Then we started all over again but from a different starting point, like a dance or a poem, and even with a different theme, it was amazing to see the how the worship art just fit right in, and the dance and the spontaneous music - when the Holy Spirit moves, it's incredible how your eyes are opened and your spirit expands to receive his revelation.  What a gift to have been part of this conference and I look so forward to the next KaritosCharleston conference! 

Dancing with Paint

"En Pointe"

Mixed Media

16x20"

Sometimes you just have to dance with the paint.  And it's always a good thing when the paint dances back with you...this piece is from last Wednesday night's service at St. Andrews Mt. Pleasant. That mid-week service just seems to unleash the creativity!

Happy New Year!

May 2015 be the Year

That You Grow to the Size of Your Opportunity!

"Koi"

Original Watercolor

15x10"

Goldfish are small because the goldfish bowl is small.  Koi are like goldfish but much bigger - they typically live in ponds.  Francis Frangipane has an excellent teaching called "Grow into Your Opportunity".  We each grow into the size of our opportunity - think big and good for 2015 - Carpe Diem!

Promoting Kingdom Creativity Conference - The Finish

"Hope"

Watercolor

11x15"

Last night St. Andrews, Mt. Pleasant with Karitos Charleston hosted Promoting Kingdom Creativity Part II with keynoter Matt Tommey. Matt really is an inspiring speaker and gifted individual.  He spoke on the marketing process to the artists, musicians, potters, writers, jewelers, craftspeople and other interested persons gathered in the Ministry Center.  Besides his artistic career, he also hosts The Worship Studio, which includes a plethora of resources for creatives!  We were honored to have Matt at St. Andrews and look forward to seeing him again soon.

My painting last evening, "Hope", was inspired during a meeting yesterday morning.  I feel that when  we each operate in the gifts God has given us, we allow him to flow through our art. As a result, our creative endeavors bear fruit and bring hope.

Worship Painting at Kingdom Creativity Conference

"Live Oak"

(Isaiah 61:1-3)

Watercolor

Image 11x15"

This weekend St. Andrews, Mt. Pleasant is hosting a conference, Promoting Kingdom Creativity (a/k/a Karitos Charleston, a regional offshoot of the Karitos conference in Chicago which is celebrating its 20th year of Kingdom Arts and is the same conference I painted and taught at last July.) 

Our keynote speaker is Matt Tommey, and he just enthralled the conference attendees last night!  He's coming back this evening for Part II, and we're all looking forward to another dynamic evening of worship and teaching.  Please join us at 6pm tonight - the fee is only $10.00!

I painted "Live Oak" last evening during the worship and teaching.  God's creativity in his people is a living thing, evergreen and born to branch out into the world.  When we move in the gifts God has  given us, we give Him the opportunity to spread His love, hope and healing through us.

Wednesday Night Worship Painting

3 Pomegranates

Watercolor

14x10" Image

$250.00

Love fruit, love red, love pomegranates!  Painted during the worship service at St. Andrews last night. It's been a while since I've painted pure watercolor during worship, but I was in the watercolor groove after this past weekend - leading another wonderful Watercolor Prayer Journaling Retreat at St. Christopher Camp and Conference Center on Seabrook Island.  We had a wonderful group, the weather was great, and we had the new Prayer Center as our hub for the entire weekend.  I'm already looking forward to the next one the weekend of October 3, 2014!

January 1, 2014 - HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Journey Series #2

Mixed Media Worship Painting

Image 14 x 11" with Gold Plein Air Frame 22 x 16"

$525.00

May your journey through this new year

be filled with beauty and color,

 holding wonderful opportunities around every corner!

Worship Painting at Karitos 2013 in Chicago

"Living Stones"

Mixed Media with Illumination on Wood

18"x18"

$450.00

"Living Stones" was painted Friday night, July 12, 2013 at the Karitos Conference.  In praying about the conference I kept getting the words "living stones",  so I used part of 1 Peter 2:5 in the illluminated page which I painted and gilded with 23K gold before I left Charleston. When I woke up Friday morning, it occurred to me that I needed to put some dirt from the Wheaton Academy campus in the painting (I frequently put matter in my mixed media work these days - it's great texture and there's something symbolic about it also).  I also glued some rice paper onto the foundation before I started painting.

Being part of Karitos 2013 was really exciting, with a few challenges thrown in - what do I take (the clothes were easy...) and how best to transport my art supplies - I ended up using my Pissaro Artist Portfolio which I checked on my Southeast flight - it was perfect because it handles up to a full sheet of watercolor paper and has room for supplies.  When I found out that Southeast Airlines allowed 2 free checked baggage, I threw my French easel (which is like an old friend - I even painted on the Southern Steps of the Temple in Jerusalem with it...) in a suitcase! And then just carried my laptop since I was using powerpoint presentations with my introductory lectures.

I painted at the plenary sessions Friday and Saturday night and taught 3 classes in the visual arts track.  One class was 70 minutes long, and the other two classes were 140 minutes so that the participants would have enough time to paint.  All my classes were set up in the art classroom so it was great to kind of "camp out" there, keeping my easel and supplies there until it was time to paint at the evening sessions.  I was also able to attend 2 excellent classes, one with author John Desjarlais and a double (140 minutes) class with artist/calligrapher Timothy Botts (who had painted a fabulous word picture at Thursday evening's open session).  

The people at the conference were wonderful.  And the offerings were so varied and excellent!  The different tracks were visual arts, dance and movement, literary, film, worship/vocal, theatre and signing.There was another "Mimi" there - the actress Mimi Sagadin and we had a surprise invitation to stay late Thursday evening and view a new award-winning movie "Return to the Hiding Place" in which Actress Mimi played Corrie Ten Boom!  It tells the "Hiding Place" story from the point of view of the youth that were part of the same efforts with Corrie Ten Boom to help the Jews escape from the Nazis.  What a highlight of the conference - and then to find out that it was at this same Karitos Conference several years ago that Mimi was encouraged to pursue an acting career...

Many thanks to the Visual Arts Coordinator, our own Alex Radin of Artist on Fire, for inviting me to be part of this incredible gathering!  

Wednesday Night Worship - Real Time Painting

"Bird of Oil"

Acrylic on Wood

18x18"

$250

Tonight was our last Wednesday night Worship Service until August 28th (we always take part of summer off for a period of rest).  The title is strange, but there's a reason for it.  I had vision yesterday of a bird with it's mouth open to receive, not food, but oil.  The other word that came to mind was "honey".  So I believe there must be something quite special about the song of this bird...

I also was experimenting with this rather thin wooden board.  I'm teaching 3 workshops at the annual Karitos Conference in Chicago which runs from Thursday evening, July 11th through Saturday evening, July 13th.  Additionally, I'm painting at the Friday and Saturday evening worship services, so I've been pondering what kind of paper, canvas, etc. to take and how best to transport it.  Space, size and weight all figure into what I can take on a plane.  It seemed to me that the larger thin wooden board would warp, but my friend Trevor at Artist and Craftsman Supply said it shouldn't warp if I gesso both sides and we both agreed I should use 2 coats of gesso.  I used 18x18" board, gessoed both sides twice and painted on the board tonight.  So far the board is fine and straight!

Real Time Painting 2013

Mystery: Slit in Jerusalem City Wall

Mixed Media

17x20" Framed, Gold Plein Air

$400.00

Last night I was scheduled to paint during St. Andrews Mt. Pleasant's Wednesday Night series, "Habitat for Divinity".  As sometimes happens, plans went awry - I got caught in the middle of the traffic nightmare during the downtown Charleston flooding... The above painting was created a few months ago at a Wednesday night service, and I'm pleased with how it turned out. I really liked the mystery in the painting - what's behind the wall?  Much history (and mystery) throughout the ages.

My inspiration was a photograph from my 2012 Israel trip, but the way the paint went over the textured background, I was reminded of a mandorla, the oblong shape seen in some iconography such as the ancient icon, "The Transfiguration" shown below. "Mandorla" is the Italian word for almond, which is the same shape as a mandorla.  The word also refers to the space in between 2 overlapping circles.

The Transfiguration

Merry Christmas 2012!

The Light Shines in the Darkness

11x14"

Mixed Media

Worship Painting, St. Andrews Mt. Pleasant, December 19, 2012

Three of our artists painted Wednesday night, December 19 during a wonderful Lessons and Carols service in the historic Church - the Church is small and lends itself to an intimate atmosphere.  I love being enveloped in that atmosphere of the Presence when I paint.  The painting is from a photograph I took in Bethlehem in the Church of the Nativity, which is built on top of the cave which is the traditional site of Jesus' birth.

This church is a hodgepodge of levels, nooks and crannies. The side door on the upper right as you face the altar was flooded with light the day I was there, and it struck me that the inside of the church had such low lighting - it was actually rather dark because of the sparse electrical light and dim candlelight - perhaps that's why the midday light flooding in from the outside was so dramatic.

And then again, perhaps it's not unusual when I realize that it's only the light of Christ that can illuminate our churches, our homes, our lives.

Worship Painting at New Wine 2009

"Count It All Joy"
Original Mixed Media
16" x 20"
NFS

Today was the celebration service for New Wine USA 2009, winding up our annual 3-day conference held at St. Andrews, Mt. Pleasant. See here (6/21-New Wine Days 2 and 3) for video clips and synopsis. As usual, it was a wonderful weekend gathering of worship, teaching and fellowship. Our army of artists (15) painted in the Ministry Center during the worship and keynote speaker sessions Friday evening, Saturday morning and Saturday evening. Above is my artwork from the session last evening. It's always an adventure when God surprises me with a painting that totally changes course from the original concept in the midst of the actual painting. When he begins to strongly suggest a different path, it's best to just let him lead the way and enjoy the ride!

"Psalm 24: 1-6"

Original Mixed Media Collage

Worship Painting

15" x 22" As Is - $150.00

Double Matted to 22" x 28" - $175.00

Painted last evening at the 6:30 St. Andrews service, another of my "Water and the Word" series. I had a vision of above and the scripture which came to mind was "The earth is the Lord's..." which is the beginning of Psalm 24 as I know it in the New International Version. Looking the passage up in The Message, I really liked the language and decided to use that translation as the background. With all the uncertainty in the world today, I find that I need to be reminded of the truth of God's sovereignty.

"Psalm 52:8 - Olive Tree"

Original Mixed Media Collage
Worship Painting

15" x 22" - SOLD

Part of the Water into Word series, this was painted at a conference focusing on intercession at Light of Christ Church in Marietta, Georgia yesterday. At the Church of All Nations in the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem, the olive trees are extremely old and have massive trunks. On one side of the church near the doors is a wall of stone with olive trees planted in the ground above the wall. In reality the trees above the wall are not as old as those in the garden on the other side and certainly not as massive as the one in this painting. I wanted to paint this tree as weathered, substantial, strong, green and alive. The olive tree is a symbol of the anointing of God. One of the conference participants asked me what the wall represented. I didn't have a particular reason (not unusual for me as an artist...) other than having seen the wall at Gethesmane and wanting to use it in the artwork. She, however, had thought it was the wall of intercession, and I told her I thought she was right. I think worship painting in church or at a conference is not just about what God inspires me to paint or what I interpret the meaning to be - it's also about what he speaks to others through it, and in this case, it is a great example of how he gave someone else an interpretative element of the painting that brought a deeper significance to it, especially regarding the gift and ministry of intercession.

"Feed My Sheep"

Original Mixed Media Collage
Worship Painting

15" x 22"
Matted to 22" x 28" - NFS

Painted Wednesday, November 26, 2008 at the 6:30 p.m. service. The cross and the rock are from Tabgha in Israel, both inside the Chapel of Peter's Primacy on the Sea of Galilee, the traditional site of Jesus' third appearance to the disciples after the resurrection - the place where he stood on the shore and prepared breakfast for his disciples - the place of Peter's reinstatement. After denying Jesus 3 times before the crucifixion, it is here by the Galilee that Jesus prompts Peter to proclaim 3 times his love for Jesus, with Jesus' instruction to "feed my sheep." This painting is being donated to St. Andrews' mission outreach auction, at it's annual "Fishin' for a Mission" to help raise money to "feed His sheep."