Religious Series in Colored Pencil
I believe that the Holy Spirit enjoys speaking to us both with and without words. We all learn in different ways, some people are visual, some are not, some are intellectual and logical, some are spontaneous and experimental. Whatever your primary learning language is, research tells us that the more different mediums you experience, the more likely you are to retain what you are learning.
So step out of your comfort zone, or into it. Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you in a new way. You don’t need to “get it,” you don’t have to like it.
Painter of sunsets and sculptor of canyons, please use this art for your glory and your purposes. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear. Amen.
S. Jewell S. McGhee 09/26/09
So step out of your comfort zone, or into it. Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you in a new way. You don’t need to “get it,” you don’t have to like it.
Painter of sunsets and sculptor of canyons, please use this art for your glory and your purposes. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear. Amen.
S. Jewell S. McGhee 09/26/09
Reflections by the artist on
One Beside Another
A single word, standing alone with no context or sentence or story has very little power.
"Possible"
But taken together in a set, with other different words, their meaning and usefulness increases exponentially. Different contexts create different meanings or at least different nuances.
"Suddenly it became possible."
"It is possible, but unlikely."
"The possibilities are endless."
Words are not the only things that need contexts. Colors also have contexts. A pale blue is lovely for a flower, but very wrong for a skin tone. Noises have contexts. A noise that is normal in a mechanic shop would be alarming if heard in a nursery.
Friends are the context of our lives. We are set one beside another and we make sense of our world and of each other. C. S. Lewis said it this way, "“In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets….”
"As iron sharpens iron, so one friend sharpens another." (Proverbs 27:17) We are so different, you and I, but you bring out of me what no one else can. Beside you, I am sharper, stronger, and more eager to set out into this world.
I am so thankful for you, my friend.
3-25-14
S. Jewell S. McGhee
One Beside Another
A single word, standing alone with no context or sentence or story has very little power.
"Possible"
But taken together in a set, with other different words, their meaning and usefulness increases exponentially. Different contexts create different meanings or at least different nuances.
"Suddenly it became possible."
"It is possible, but unlikely."
"The possibilities are endless."
Words are not the only things that need contexts. Colors also have contexts. A pale blue is lovely for a flower, but very wrong for a skin tone. Noises have contexts. A noise that is normal in a mechanic shop would be alarming if heard in a nursery.
Friends are the context of our lives. We are set one beside another and we make sense of our world and of each other. C. S. Lewis said it this way, "“In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets….”
"As iron sharpens iron, so one friend sharpens another." (Proverbs 27:17) We are so different, you and I, but you bring out of me what no one else can. Beside you, I am sharper, stronger, and more eager to set out into this world.
I am so thankful for you, my friend.
3-25-14
S. Jewell S. McGhee
Psalm 139
Reflections by the Artist on
Psalm 139
I clicked on this and now I look at it, and LORD, you are with me, and you think about me. Later I am going to leave and to go you know where and sleep you know when. I am going to be so happy about something you already know about and I will praise you for your goodness! Then, later, there will be darkness and sorrows and loss. I will run and try to hide from feelings and things and people. Maybe if I close my eyes you won’t be able to see me. No, my darkness does not diminish your light.
You think of me, and you think of me, and you think of me. Thought and thought and thoughts, filling sandboxes and hourglasses and beaches. And coming away in my shoes and towel and on the car floor and in the cracks of the cushions. And it is never cleaned up because your thoughts keep coming.
You are with me in those dark times and in the light.
You bring growth and turn back death.
You form me from formlessness and you will read to me the book of my life page by page until you close the book and carry me like a sleeping child to my bed.
There is no one better to search me. No one more qualified to test me. No one with more goodness to guide and lead me.
I praise you, LORD, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well.
S.Jewell S. McGhee
3-12-14
Psalm 139
I clicked on this and now I look at it, and LORD, you are with me, and you think about me. Later I am going to leave and to go you know where and sleep you know when. I am going to be so happy about something you already know about and I will praise you for your goodness! Then, later, there will be darkness and sorrows and loss. I will run and try to hide from feelings and things and people. Maybe if I close my eyes you won’t be able to see me. No, my darkness does not diminish your light.
You think of me, and you think of me, and you think of me. Thought and thought and thoughts, filling sandboxes and hourglasses and beaches. And coming away in my shoes and towel and on the car floor and in the cracks of the cushions. And it is never cleaned up because your thoughts keep coming.
You are with me in those dark times and in the light.
You bring growth and turn back death.
You form me from formlessness and you will read to me the book of my life page by page until you close the book and carry me like a sleeping child to my bed.
There is no one better to search me. No one more qualified to test me. No one with more goodness to guide and lead me.
I praise you, LORD, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well.
S.Jewell S. McGhee
3-12-14
S. Jewell S. McGhee likes to call her drawings "painting with pencils." She first started using colored pencils to help her mother write names on lunch bags for school. "My mom would pick matching themes for the names on our bags; all balloons, or sunrises, or sometimes just geometric shapes. She always made them so beautiful; a plain brown bag lunch was, all at once, a love note, a story, a hug, and simple colors to enlighten us for the rest of the day." These bags also became a constant reminder that art was simple, attainable, and a part of every day.