Christmas stories by candlelight

Each year I do a "Christmas" painting that we use for our family Christmas card. This is the 2014 version. I wanted to do an old fashioned "scripture by candlelight" composition. I had done one similar to this one years ago as a study with Jerry Yarnell. Hope you enjoy ...

Portland Temple

Nathan and Holly sent me some beautiful photos of the Portland Temple that they took while there recently. This is "their" temple and I just had to get it onto canvas for them!

Ellie's Day

Our grand daughter, Ellie, chose to be baptized last month. She lives up in Seattle, so I was able to go up and attend the service. After the ordinance, we went over to the Bellevue LDS Temple for some photos since it was so close to the Stake Center. When I browsed my photos upon my return home, I realized that I just had to paint this one! What a beautiful girl on a beautiful day!

Tell me the stories of Jesus

Several years ago, I went to Seattle to meet our newest grandson, Matthew, right after he was born. I immediately fell in love with the little guy! While there, I also got to play with and read a new book that Grammy had sent along to Rachelle’s older children. At the time, I did not know that Cory had taken a photo of the experience (see below). He later sent it to me … I filed it away in my “Grandkids” file for affectionate viewing later!

This year, the LDS church sent out a “call for artists” to participate in the Fine Art event with the theme, “Tell me the stories of Jesus”.

I immediately thought of that photo of me reading to Rachelle’s kids, and this new image was born (above)! It was a little daunting at first placing us in this scene, but after a few attempts, it became a fun and meaningful painting experience for me. 

I believe there is nothing more important we can do with our little ones than to tell them the stories of Jesus while teaching them His gospel.

Mortality challenges us with weakness, sin and death. The “good news” that the angel brought so many years ago was that a Savior had been born for all of us … and He can ”fix” and help us navigate through all of these mortal challenges. May we all be able to tell the stories of Jesus to those we love!