Introducing Picture Stories
The journey of honing the gift of painting
A little introduction
Hi, I’m Susan and I’d like to share a little with you about my painting. I started painting in Jr. high and High school and tested several different methods.
For over 10 years, my sister-in-law, her daughter, and I attended a three-day summer painting class at my former workplace, Gullbrannagården.
Before then I had dabbled in oil painting after taking a class for a term in a study circle. After testing acrylics, I soon found that I enjoyed them better as they are water-soluble and easy to clean without strong chemicals. Also, you can make it look like oil with more paint and less water, or like watercolors by using more water.
It is a flexible medium that dries quickly, allowing you to work faster and layer colors without risking bleeding or mixing. If you need the paint to dry slower you can add a Gel Medium (matte or glossy). The gel lengthens the drying time of the paint as well as making the texture more liquid and thinning the paint.
Video Introduction
In the video below I talk freely about a particular attempt at painting with acrylic paint. I have written in more detail, the thoughts I speak of, in the text below.
A parenthesis: Although I am American I have done most of my painting in Sweden. I have learned the painting terms in Swedish and have difficulties finding the right words in English. The word ‘canvas’ escapes me often for example among other words. I leave my language mistakes just for the fun of it. It might give someone a laugh who can understand the difficulties of being bilingual.
Read about The Whispering Woods
I painted this painting about 12 years ago. It was the second painting I had done with acrylic paint. For over 10 years, my sister-in-law, her daughter, and I attended a three-day summer painting class at my workplace, Gullbrannagården. Before then I had dabbled in oil painting. I soon found that I enjoyed acrylics better as they are water-soluble and depending on the amount of water and paint ratio your painting can resemble an oil painting or a watercolor. When I was learning to use acrylics, I had difficulty getting an acceptable green for the grass and trees. Several years later, I decided to touch up the painting, as I wasn’t satisfied with it. I found it easiest to change the color from spring to fall as it was difficult to paint the background color behind the trees without affecting the trees’ colors.
Because I planned to use this painting for teaching purposes, I painted the sides of the frame to make the illusion of a 3D forest.
Why all the open space?
I call this painting ‘Skogens Hemlighet’ in Swedish and ‘The Whispering Woods’ in English. It may look like an unusual motif with so much open space in the center, but there is a reason I did this. I wanted to use the painting for a Sunday School lesson plan I’ve written with the same title. I’ve made small figures on paper of different animals who tell about some of the aspects of God.
I wrote the material for ages 5-8 of a group of children from homes that were unfamiliar with the story of Jesus and salvation. I guess you could call it Christianity 101 for children.
There is one child in the story who meets 12 animals. Together they learn about God’s love, forgiveness, and so on. They meet in the woods by a log that you can see in the painting.
This method of storytelling works well with smaller groups because they can all sit close enough to see the painting and watch the story. With larger groups, you would need a larger painting. But I wasn’t pleased with my original painting.
Larger groups call for different methods
Instead, I used a series of pictures I had drawn and told the story in the form of a drama. I fed the children their lines one at a time so there was no memorization required as they hadn’t heard the stories before.
I was surprised to find that despite children being used to fast-moving cartoons, they are fascinated by slower-moving stories, especially if they get to take part and act as well.
If you want to know more about The Whispering Woods for a group you work with, please leave a comment and I will get back to you with an answer. Or sign up on my website and you can email me with your requests.
Sharing Picture Stories
I plan on sharing my paintings and a little story of each here on my website. I hope that somehow, I can inspire you to use the gifts God has given you to spread joy and the knowledge of our Lord, giving others a desire to seek a deeper personal relationship with Him.
Keep in touch
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