Masterpieces: Your Life as a Painting

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 I admire people who can paint. I can draw, but somehow, when I add color, my artistic ability dramatically declines.  Yet just as our lives are musical compositions, they are also masterpieces that reflect our Creator.

The first element of our painting is line. Line can be geometric or organic. This reminds me of the verse, Psalm 119:105, which says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Our life journey is a path toward sanctification, and I'm not sure about you, but sometimes I struggle to discern the path God has set before me. Look at a Degas, and you will see the underdrawing. Can others see the lines God has drawn on your masterpiece?



The good news is that some artists are lousy draftsmen. Take Van Gogh, for instance; he was a very poor draftsman, but his paintings make up for it with riotous color. He was an expert at complementary colors, like the purple and yellow in his work Irises. What colors has God used in you that are complementary? Sometimes they will be unexpected. I find I love blending what I know about science and music, and art with my faith. Not a combination most people would look for.



Color and line can create a sense of movement in a painting. Thick vertical lines lend a sense of stability. Where has God placed stability in your life? Curved and diagonal lines create a sense of movement when we look at the painting. When others look at you, can they see the direction that God is sending you to?

Just like music, paintings have texture. Texture can be actual texture when painters like Picasso and Kandinsky use palette knives to apply thick layers of paint, or it can be an implied like the textures in Rembrandt's self-portraits, where you are sure if you touch the painting, you will feel soft velvet fabric and/or the cold, hard steel. Is the texture in your life actual or implied?

Line and color also help create the three-dimensional form of a piece from its two-dimensional shape. When chiaroscuro was invented,  which is an effect of contrasted light and shadow created by light falling unevenly or from a particular direction on something, paintings went from appearing flat to appearing more lifelike. Did you notice that it takes light and shadow to appear lifelike? We call the lightness and darkness of a piece its value. Is your value light (called a tint and created by adding white and light colors) or dark (called a shade, created by adding black, grays, and dark colors)? Where is the light and the shadow in your life? Are you adding tints and brightness or are you living in the shadows?

As in music, the artist uses pattern and contrast to create interest. What are the patterns of your life like? Where is God creating interest? In older paintings, the focal point was a golden triangle with the object of interest in its center. In more modern paintings, that focal point is no longer the center of the piece. When people look at your painting, where do they see God? Is he at the center or off to a side?



There are many famous art movements; my favorites are probably  Pointillism, Impressionism, and Post-impressionism. All of these movements were interested in capturing light and a moment in time. Georges Seurat, who is probably the most famous pointillist, called his techniquue divisionism. He literally was trying to divide the light into its component parts. If you read this blog, you know, I feel light is a significant metaphor for our faith. A painting like A Picnic on La Grande Jatte was literally made up of thousands of tiny points of paint representing the components of light. Monet, one of the most significant Impressionists, was famous for painting the same scene time after time in different seasons and light. What does your masterpiece show at this season or this time of your life?.

One of my favorite songs that describes our life as a painting is below


Pick me up like a paintbrush, God
Dip it in the colors of my life
Paint Your picture, Father
And fashion a heart that is wholly Yours
Take Your fingers, God
Master Potter Come mold the clay
Tell Your story
As You mold me
Fashion a heart that is wholly Yours
And write your name, write Your name
In the clay
And sign Your name, sign Your name
On the picture
And write your name, write Your name
In the clay
And sign Your name, sign Your name
On the picture
Pick me up like a paintbrush, God
Dip it in the colors of my life
Paint Your picture, Father
And fashion a heart that is wholly Yours
Take Your fingers, God
Master Potter Come mold the clay
Tell Your story
As You mold me
Fashion a heart that is wholly Yours
And write your name, write Your name
In the clay
And sign Your name, sign Your name
On the picture
And write your name, write Your name
In the clay
And sign Your name, sign Your name
On the picture
Take all I am
Take all I have
I am Yours forever, forever
Take all I am
Take all I have
And I am Yours forever, forever
Take all I am
Take all I have
For I am Yours forever and ever
Take all I am
Take all I have
For I am Yours forever, forever
So come write your name, write Your name
In the clay
Come sign Your name, sign Your name
On the picture
Come write your name, write Your name
In the clay
Come sign Your name, sign Your name
On the picture

Writer(s): Julie Meyer

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