My submission is an acrylic painting on canvas. After deciding on the concept of the painting, I did some thumbnail sketches and settled on one that I felt had the best composition. Then I stapled loose canvas onto a 4 x 8 foot piece of plywood and leaned it against a wall. I asked friends to be models for the two figures…I took photos of them as references to draw from. And I used a photo of a wheat field as a reference. I wanted to make most of the painting using the golden wheat color and purple, to keep it simple and use complementary colors. I started with painting the whole canvas with a muted blue-purple color. Then I drew the figures on paper and then used transfer paper to draw them on the canvas. When I felt like I was struggling with the painting, I asked my artist friends for feedback and at times I prayed to God to ask for his help. There were some late nights. After I finished the painting, the canvas was removed from the board and the edges cut with an exacto-knife. It was then hung as a scroll with a dowel pocket on the top and bottom. This has been handy for transportation.

Luke 15:11-32 The story of the Prodigal Son

At the time of doing this painting I was learning more about God’s unconditional love for each of us. This was becoming a deeper revelation in my life, how God would always love me no matter what I have done. And God could take my shame and restore me to my identity as His beloved daughter. I wanted to communicate this to other people. Then I became interested in doing a painting about the prodigal son story. I feel like everyone can relate to this story.

When starting, I thought about what part of the story I should illustrate. A painting is generally just one image, so I wanted to capture the most critical point in the story. To me, it was when the father was running toward his lost son with open arms.

I wanted to do a modern-day version of this story so that people could relate to it more and perhaps see themselves in the place of the son. I also wanted it to be done so that you couldn’t know the ethnicity of the characters, so that it would be relatable across cultures.

I feel like the painting communicates well the desperation of the son and the incredible love of the father.

The original painting is not for sale, but prints of various sizes are for sale. Please email paintingsbychristy@gmail.com for info.