A Small Farm-a Sunrise Painting.

The people here have a wonderful sense of pride in these jewels. The countryside in this area is a 'plein-aire' painters paradise. This is a lovely little farm north of where we live in Western Pennsylavnia. It is one of many. The landscape is rolling hills, winding country roads with small lakes and streams everywhere. The country is heavily wooded and conceals much of the sign of civilization. There are few long vistas due to the abundance of trees and the hills. The few overlooks that there are reveal little but rolling heavily wooded hills punctuated by little farms just like this one. This is a sunrise painting. All of them are $100.00 plus shipping. It is approx. 7"x10".

Khmer Girls

Colin and Julie-April's son and his wife- will be leaving to be permanent missionaries in Cambodia around the end of the year. They have made several trips to the region over the last year. The photo that this painting was painted from is from one of thier trips. God seems to be moving in the area drawing the people to relationship with Jesus. This move of the Holy Spirit is among the youth. The average age in Cambodia is 18. The Khmer rouge under Pol Pot murdered a significant portion of the previous generation in the infamous "killing fields". At the time that Pol Pot began his murder spree the Church in Cambodia was in revival. Ninety percent of that church was tortured and killed. If you are interested in knowing more about the history of the Church in Cambodia, you might read, "Killing Fields, Living Fields" written by Don Cormack. Colin and Julie will be assisting the local church in the raising up and equipping of the next generation of native leadership. To learn more about Colin and Julie and the work that they have been called to do in Cambodia, please visit thier website by using the link on this home page or at www. colinandjulie.net.

Praying at Gulu

Prayin at Gulu

The young woman who was the model for this painting lives in Gulu, Uganda, E.A. She is around 17 years old. She has never known anything but war. The war that she lives with has been going on in Northern Uganda for over 20 years. Currently there are over 1 million internally displaced persons living in camps with horrible conditions in the area. The Gulu region is bordered on the North by the Southern Sudan. While it is not the same war, the causes are the same. It is a very dangerous place to grow up. the war is primarily being waged against children. The young boys are abducted and brainwashed into being soldiers for the LRA. The young girls are taken as sex slaves. Many are sold as sex slaves to merchants from the North of Sudan. The leader of the LRA, a monster named Kony believes that he is the Holy Spirit apparently and that his terrorist practices are therefore acts of God.

April and I were able to be in Gulu because of the kind assistance of The Anglican Archbishop of Uganda, the most reverend Henry Luke Orembi. We were able to travel with him and others to Gulu in February, 2004 as he was traveling with military escort. The photo from which I painted this was taken by me at a joint prayer service where we prayed for peace in the region. the service was conducted jointly by the Catholic and the Anglican Archbishops of Uganda.

The origional of this painting is in a private collection. Prints are available. The origional is about 15"x 22". Please mail me: alan@missionarywatercolors.com.

At the Window

A big part of our missionary journeys to Uganda are the children. We haven't planned it that way it just happens. The children are everywhere. They are at the window and they are waiting at the door. They are in your lap and they go with you everywhere. To be in the villages and visiting the Christians of Uganda is to be up to your armpits in children. When you return from there you of course bring them with you in your heart. Many of them are children alone. There are over one million aids orphans in Uganda alone. Sadly, aids is once more on the rise in Uganda. This is largly due to the war in the North of the country where rape of children is practiced by the LRA as a form of terrorism. These are hard realities. I would of course prefer to report from the mission field good news. There certainly is plenty of good news to tell as well. I will get to that on other posts. But, evil cannot tolerate the light of publicity. Publicity of terrorism is the tool that we have to use against it and so, as much as we may not be edified by the truth, we in good conscience must share. Please pray for peace and political stability for Uganda.

Our Friend Peter

Peter is a good friend of our family and is the retired dean of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry. April and I and two of our six sons are graduates or are students there now and that is how we came to know Peter. This portrait seems to capture Peter pretty well. He is a very thoughtful, loyal and warm person who is a devoted follower of Jesus and is quick to see the humor in this sometimes crazy life. This pose is classic Peter. In preparation for this portrait I snapped over 50 digital shots while April engaged him in conversation about family and friends. Most of my paintings are of people but, I don't do a lot of portraits. I don't have a problem doing them other than I am very hard on myself when I do them. I may invest too much time in doing them. The preparation for this work included several pencil sketches and two watercolor sketches in order to finally arrive at this piece. I prefer to freehand sketch the portrait rather than mechanically project the image on to the canvas and then trace it as some professional portrait artists prefer. I am by no means a purist in this. If I did more portraits I might find projecting more efficient but I am pursuing more than an accurate likeness when I do a portrait. My hope is to capture the person in a deeper way. Doing the sketches and the other prep work that I do helps me to discover what it is about a person that makes the subject obviously them to the viewers that know them best. I would enjoy comments from those of you who know our friend Peter.