I was asked by a friend to create a painting to help illustrate his sermon to the church about peace. Part of the sermon was a story about a king who gave a competition to the artists of his kingdom to paint the best painting of peace. The runner up featured a serene mountain lake, reflecting the snowy peaks and cloudless sky in its perfectly still waters. The winner, however, was a scene of turmoil: crashing seas pounded against the foot of a wind beaten cliff, deluged by a mighty waterfall and the angry sky whipped the land above. Looking closer however, from a crack in the cliff wall precariously close to the raging torrent a small tree grew forth and nestled upon it's branches sat a small bird, mindful of it's surroundings, yet unruffled and at peace within itself. This, the king proclaimed as the best expression of true peace, which is not shaken by turbulent events which surround it.


Detail

So this is the painting that came from that inspiration. I went to a friends studio which is more amenable to having paint splattered in it, and attacked the canvas with slashes and blows, sometimes beating it like a drum. 90% of the painting is actually words of turmoil like 'anger, hate, depression, rage, loss' etc, and before I scrawled on each word I waited until I was in touch with that word's emotion. The split waterfall seemed to emerge by itself and then I found myself suggesting Jesus on the cross, head bowed in supplication to God's will, and the weight of the world pouring over him - the greatest expression of peace amongst turmoil the world has ever known.

Andrew used the painting to great effect in his sermon and it was auctioned off in the cafe afterwards for over $1000, which went towards the church's new building fund.

When I had arrived at Brett's studio in the morning to begin work on this painting I was all excited and said to him, 'hey, I'm doing a painting for church today!', he laughed and let me finish telling him about it, then he told me he'd had a word from God that same morning telling him to get out and prepare his studio for me. He said he'd resisted for a while and asked God what the hurry was and he felt God saying to him, 'Richard is painting for ME today.' When Brett told me that after I arrived it just filled me up and I felt guided and blessed through the whole painting. An awesome experience.