An artist at work...

An artist at work is in a condition of complete and total faith. Madeleine L'Engle Walking on Water - Reflections on Faith & Art

Servant of the glory...

An Eastern Orthodox theologian, Timothy Kallistos Ware, writes that "an abstract composition by Kandinsky or Van Gogh's landscape of the cornfield with birds...is a real instance of divine transfiguration, in which we see matter rendered spiritual and entering into the 'glorious liberty of the children of God.' This remains true, even when the artist does not personally believe in God. Provided he is an artist of integrity, he is a genuine servant of the glory which he does not recognize, and unknown to himself there is 'something divine' about his work. We rest confident that at the last judgement the angels will produce his work of art as testimony on his behalf." Madeleine L'Engle Walking on Water - Reflections on Faith & Art

Servant of the work...

"When the artist is truly the servant of the work, the work is better than the artist; Shakespeare knew how to listen to his work, and so he often wrote better than he could write; Bach composed more deeply, more truly than he knew; Rembrandt's brush put more of the human spirit on canvas than Rembrandt could comprehend." Madeleine L'Engle Walking on Water - Reflections on Faith & Art

We do not create alone.

"An artist is a nourisher and creator who knows that during the act of creation there is collaboration. We do not create alone." Madeleine L'Engle Walking on Water - Reflections on Faith & Art

Reflections on Faith and Art - Madeleine L'Engle

Obedience is an unpopular word nowadays, but the artist must be obedient to the work, whether it is a symphony, a painting, or a story for a small child. I believe that each work of art, whether it is a work of great genius, or something very small, comes to the artist and says, "Here I am. Enflesh me. Give birth to me."

Excerpt from Walking on Water by Madeleine L'Engle

Brown Jug with Oranges
Oil Painting

Art for God's Sake

"The making of art is an end in and of itself; it is an act of worship in and of itself; it is an act of humility and joy at once; and, in the life of the believer, it is accomplished as a gift back to the Creator who made us—art for God's sake instead of art for art's sake, as it were." Bret Lott, novelist quoted from Christianity Today, March 2010.

NT Wright on Art and Mission

We have lived for too long with the arts as the pretty bit around the edge, with the reality as the non-artistic thing in the middle. But the world is charged with the grandeur of God! Why should we not celebrate and rejoice in that?

Genuine art takes seriously the fact that the world is full of the glory of God, and that it will be full "as the waters cover the sea," and at present (Rom. 8) it is groaning in travail. ...Genuine art responds to that triple awareness...and holds them together as the Psalms do, and asks why and what and where are we. You can do that in music and you can do that in painting, and our generation needs us to do that not simply to decorate the gospel but to announce the gospel.

Still life painting of a red Christmas ball. 6" x 6"

Still life oil painting of brown and orange jug with some granny smith apples and red grapes from George Ceffalio's July 2011 class at the DuPage Art League. 8" x 10" on canvas.

Chiaroscuro...

"Chiaroscuro reflects hope and illuminates truth for the viewer; the light opens the way before us." Dr. Christine Kepner, Professor, Wheaton College

Chiaroscuro uses a single source of light to shine into the darkness of a still life bringing certain objects into the light or into focus. It is by the light that we see or know what those objects are and how they relate to one another. Those objects also reflect the light back to the source as well as onto the other objects. It actually seems to be a very sacred action…

John 1:4,5
"In him [Jesus] was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

Small still life oil painting of a glass jar and some tangerines. 5" x 7" on a panel.