Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. Revelation 19:7
This is the painting I did as a wedding gift I gave my friends Kelly & Jeff. I also made her a necklace – I should have taken a picture of that too.
Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples. I Chronicles 16:8, 24
This is another painting I did from a picture from one of my missionary friends in Africa. For some reason these are my favorite paintings to work on. This one is from Chris and Beverly. They are here in the US for a visit and I got to see them twice since they’ve been here – they return to Africa next month. Beverly was at my house just this week! I should post some pictures of the beautiful gifts they brought us from Africa (jewelry, a leather purse, and a bible). I have a “mission” wall that I put up gifts from missionaries and things we’ve brought back from mission trips. I may have to post a picture of my wall – it really is a work of art – I love it! Thank you Chris & Beverly for the picture, but most of all thank you for your love for the nations and making Christ famous among them!
You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Isaiah 55:12
This is a painting I did for my friend Laura who got married this last weekend. It was the sweetest wedding. They knew each other and were friends since 5th grade and had saved themselves for this special day before the Lord. I know He was pleased by their purity and this covenant that is a beautiful picture of Himself. It is cloudy and rainy today which messed up the color and clarity of the pictures. The first picture below is of the painting itself and the second one is of the painting framed (I haven’t showen yall how I mat them with the scripture so I thought I would today).
The boundary LINES have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. Psalm 16:6
I do these line sketches all the time in my sketch book – they’re easy and fun. They’re good to do while sketching in the car, because the more squiggly the lines the neater the picture turns out. I thought I would see how the line concept turned out in a painting. So here are some quick paintings I did with the lines.
I also wanted to say Happy Mother’s Day to my Mom!!!!! She got a “line” card for Mother’s Day. Love you Mom!!!!
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to weep and a time to laugh. Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4
You may be wondering how this painting and this scripture relate – they don’t and I’ll tell you why. Saturday afternoon I went to the creek with Grady – he fished and I painted. We went to a creek where we have to cross over at one point to get to a good fishing hole for Grady. Grady always gives me a piggy back ride across the creek – he’s really good at it – he carries me, all my painting gear, and all his fishing gear. After a couple of hours of fishing and painting it was time to head home because we had a birthday party to go to. We get all loaded up and I hopped on Grady’s back for my “ride” across the creek. Everything was going just fine until all of a sudden I’m submerged in the creek – all but one side of my face and one shoulder. Grady’s foot slipped and he hung on to me for dear life leaving his knee to take the brunt of the fall, but I still ended up submerged in the creek. Once we got ourselves together and to the side of the creek I realized my bag with all my painting supplies was completely filled to the brim 🙂 with water! Since I paint with watercolor paints all my supplies were fine, but my sketchbook with all my paintings didn’t fair so well. That’s why I don’t have any paintings to show you from my painting excursion – they all got washed away – including several other paintings that thankfully I had already posted. So that’s why there is this random painting – one I did a couple of weeks ago and just hadn’t posted yet because I couldn’t think of a verse to put with it, so this worked out perfectly. Grady hated my paintings got messed up, but I told him it was worth it for the laugh and the great memory.
So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds – everything that moves on the earth – came out of the ark, one kind after another. Genesis 8:18-19
I feel like this after winter – like I’m coming out of the ark (aka my house) I’ve been cooped up in for months :). It probably looked like spring to Noah too – everything would have been blooming after all the destruction. What a sight it must have been. I painted these Noah’s ark pictures a year or so ago. I can’t take credit for their concept/design though – I got the idea straight from a Noah’s ark children’s book that is illustrated by Ivan Gatschev and is done in watercolor. I love the paintings in the book so I tried painting them myself.
Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway! Remove the stones. Raise a banner for the nations. Isaiah 62:10
My friend Amy is doing just that – preparing the way and raising a banner for the people in Africa. She is a missionary in Africa. I love painting pictures my missionary friends send me or have posted on their blogs. Amy posted both of these on her blog. The first one is a very loaded down van on some sort of “highway”. I loved the colors and how it was stacked to the sky with stuff – last but not least – a wheelbarrow – you never know when you’ll need one of those in Africa :)! I painted this picture last night while cleaning the kitchen and cooking. I can do that since my painting “station” is my woodblock which is right in the middle of my kitchen – very convenient!
This second picture is of a lady at her sewing machine in a hut.
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord Your God. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Exodus 20:8-10,11
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His. Hebrews 4:9-10
Grady was enjoying his ‘Sabbath-rest’ one afternoon and I decided to paint his restful feet while they were good and still.
Sandi Hester 
