Fruit of the Spirit Series of Paintings

This series has been a LONG time coming. In fact, I first thought about doing a non-objective series based on the ‘Fruit of the Spirit’ (Galatians 5: 22 – 23) way back in 1987 or 1988 when we lived in Churchill, Manitoba. I know that because I’m a ‘journal keeper’, and I wrote about it! I only had two kids at the time. (My second daughter Priscilla was only one or two.)

I remember thinking about those verses and seeing some pictures in my head, especially of the first three – LOVE, JOY, & PEACE. At the time, I thought, wouldn’t it be neat to do a series that was totally non-objective but that still symbolized the essence of each ‘fruit’? I labelled it “Painting in Tongues” and was excited to get started.

Except life and busyness got in the way! I thought about it several times during the next thirty some years, imagining what the other six would look like. I even prayed about it on occasion. (Evidenced in more journal entries!) A couple of years ago I again felt a stronger than normal urge to paint the series and even went so far as to buy some square canvases for that purpose. At one point I had thought about making each one really large (four foot squares) but I already have too much original art under my beds, so I went with one foot squares instead, which is much more manageable!

Anyway, since Covid 19 took over everyone’s lives and we’re all finding things to do at home, I decided that now was the time to get at it! It only took 30 years or so, but better late than never, right?

From left to right starting at the top:

LOVE – JOY – PEACE – PATIENCE – KINDNESS – GOODNESS – FAITHFULNESS – GENTLENESS – SELF CONTROL

It is difficult to get a good sense of the details, (my photography skills aren’t the best and some look kind of faded…) but there you have it! No more wondering what it’s all about!