Out Of My Comfort Zone

     Hi everyone! Welcome to my Colleen Cole Art blog. For a long time now I have been intrigued with the idea of starting a blog. 
Many of you ask me questions about my artwork, such as:

Where do you get the ideas for the paintings you paint? 
What do some of your religious paintings mean?
What are the tools you use as an artist?
What does your studio look like? 
and many other questions...
Some of you  also continue to ask me when I will be making prints available. I will be able to answer each of these questions as we go along. A blogging format allows me to share a little bit more than I can on Facebook or other social media sites. From time to time, I may even do a painting demonstration (depending on the interest). I plan to share a variety of things on my blog in the hopes that it will keep it interesting for my followers. 

     Some of you are artists as well. I always learn so much from seeing the artwork you post and I look forward to sharing with you the things I've learned as well. Thanks to each of you my friends, for the interest you have shown in my artwork. I think this will be the start of something really fun! I'll be posting religious and other non-religious work as well. There should be something for every taste. I hope you will follow my journey as I figure out this blogging thing!

     Here are a couple of pieces I painted Eastertime when my children were younger. The first one is a watercolor and the bottom one was done in oil. I love to work in both mediums. They are very different from each other and both have unique challenges to handle. These paintings are very childlike and simple in their approach. They were painted to appeal to my children. Sometimes it's fun to just "play" as we create our art. After all, art is meant to be relaxing, joyful and even therapeutic!

     I hope you all have a wonderful April and Easter with your families and friends. Enjoy the egg hunts, the candy, the egg coloring and the many other fun traditions of this holiday. It's a wonderful time to be together. Go enjoy spring and just be happy. You may even consider picking up an affordable set of watercolors and go paint! No matter what difficulties we are going through, we have so much to be happy about. I feel true JOY when I remember the real reason for the celebration... the gifts that our Savior offers us.

The Lamb

     A few years ago I had the wonderful experience of taking over 1,000 pictures, which I used as art references in doing a series of paintings about the qualities of Jesus Christ. I found three amazing Christ models who were willing to pose for these pictures. Many of my friends and neighbors also posed in those settings. I am so grateful to all the models who took of their time to help create the paintings in this series. My family also helped me on this project. My daughter, Mary, helped me by doing a lot of the photography... (She is now a grown woman and a professional photographer). That was such a fun experience. Out of those references I went on to create over 30 paintings of the Savior. This is one of them and I hope to share some of the others with you (with their meanings), as time goes on.

     This painting is entitled: The Lamb. You can see that Jesus is holding a lamb in this picture. One can see His feelings of love and tenderness for this lamb. He often refers to His role as one of a shepherd, or in His words, "the Good Shepherd'. Jesus often taught important truths in simple ways that the people of His day could understand. Shepherds are often known for the personal love and protective care they give the sheep or lambs of their fold. By referring to Himself as a shepherd, Jesus wanted us to know that He loves, protects and cares for us in much the same way as a shepherd does. When one of His fold is lost, He personally goes after them to return them to safety. When they are in harms way He warns them or gets between them and the danger. Often He uses us, His hands, to do this work of outreaching, protecting and caring for precious lambs. Jesus taught Peter (repeating three times) that if he truly loved Him, he must feed His sheep.

     Jesus Christ is also known as "The Lamb". In former times, lambs were used for sacrifice to remind the people that there was going to be a sacrifice of a perfect lamb in the future, namely Jesus Christ. He is the "Lamb of God", prepared to be offered as a sacrifice to rescue all of us. He not only goes after the lost, but He is the Savior, and by His own atoning sacrifice, all of us are rescued from death. For those who are willing to accept His conditions, His grace provides a way to receive Eternal Life.

     April is a special month as we celebrate and contemplate the birth of this amazing and perfect older brother, and as we remember what He has done for us. The cost to Him was beyond anything that any of us can understand. His atonement was an act of perfect love. No other person has ever given a gift of such infinite love. We owe Him everything.

     Spring is all about new life. Bare trees that once looked dead begin to show signs of inner life. I live near a lot of farms and every spring there are new colts, new lambs, new baby pigs and new animals of every kind. Gardens that looked dead are filled with blooming daffodils, pansies and tulips. I never look at a cemetery and think of just the dead, I think of the day when each and every one of them, who now sleeps, will be resurrected... alive again because of Jesus Christ! Oh how good God is to us to give us His Son, His only begotten Son, The Lamb!

 (A print of this painting is coming in June)
note: today at the April General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,
Jeffrey R. Holland gave a great talk on The Lamb of God.