FAITH, BELIEVERS & NONBELIEVERS

clay mono type 10x10"

Is it necessary to believe in God in order to be righteous, moral, honest, loving, compassionate? Does the belief in a God provide one with a set of values that connote be otherwise obtained”. If so, whose God should one believe in?

For the sake of this narrative I am defining a believer as someone who believes in the divinity of Jesus Christ and accepts the bible as the word of God. A non believer is one who accepts neither of those propositions. Agnostics straddle the fence and may or may not accept part of those beliefs. (There are also the “Christian agnostics”, but that is another matter for another time.)

Beyond the obvious difference in a belief in a higher power, how does a nonbeliever differ from a believer? Are there apparent character traits or behaviors that makes a nonbeliever easily identifiable as such? Do nonbelievers live and act differently? Just how do you tell them apart?

One could point to church attendance and participation, but for years I attended church and was not a believer. I’m willing to bet that there are many others who have, or are, sharing that experience.

What about personal values, a term that has been so misused and thrown about that it has become almost meaningless; do they offer a clue to a persons belief system? Consider the following:

love as demonstrated by how others are treated,
compassion and forgiveness,
moral and ethical behavior in private, public, and business life,
tolerance and respect for people and ideas that differ from our own;,
respect for ALL life, including criminals and "collateral" civilians,
honesty and integrity,
respect and commitment to family and friends,
acceptance of responsibility to self and to family, friends, and work,
willingness to share and help those in need,
respect for the planet.
love and service to country.

Is it possible to know someone demonstrating none, some, or all of the above values and be able to predict their “believability level”? I think not, and that is what infuriates me when I hear or read that without religion we have no moral compass, no sense of responsible, ethical behavior. There are people who believe that a nonbeliever is not fit to serve this country. Believers do not have a monopoly on moral and ethical values. Behavior defines us far more than our beliefs do.,

BEFORE THE STORM

struck Paducah and western KY I managed to get one more day of work in the studio. After that we lost all electrical power for 2 days. We were fortunate to be on the small list of folks who got their power back this morning. Unfortunately my studio heater has gone out and I cannot make myself work in 48 degree temps so any further work on the farm scene will be on hold until ???

Here is the latest version of the painting, with the foreground and some of the architectural details in place.



And, I thought I would share with you some of the Paducah landscape seen in the past few days.



The view from the front of our house

the same tree, seen by my gallery

me cooking in an unheated kitchen...but the pasta was great. (Linguini with an aspargus, proscioutto, mushroom and blue cheese sauce.)

24 HOURS LATER

After reworking aan refining the buildings...today, the foreground and a few architectural corrections.

TAKING SHAPE

WIP acrylic on canvas 48x60"

This is what I'm looking at today. The architecture has been given more definition, both in form and color. There are some changes needed, especially in the shadow side of the building on the far left. Before I can go any further with the colors and values I will have to complete the foreground since this will be reflected, ever so slightly, in the buildings. Yesterday I applied the very dark foreground to serve as an under painting for what will be a lighter foreground. Today I hope to add to the foreground, as well as work on some of the architectural details.

AN ITCH I HAD TO SCRATCH

In the past several years I have painted five 48x60" canvases, which is the largest size my cramped studio and gallery can handle. I've sold one, leaving me 4 of these behemoths to show and/or store, not an easy thing to do. In addition there has been a 6th canvas, untouched, sitting in the storage rack. I like working large, the size presents challenges unique to its scale, but for reasons stated above, it is something I've been avoiding. A few weeks ago it hit me, like a brisk slap on the head, not painting on a fresh canvas in my storage rack because I have no place to store it is kinda...well...just plain stupid!!! And, inspired by a recent pastel farm scene, I dragged the canvas out into the studio, arranged for my easel to accommodate its size, and began to paint.

First, here is the pastel that is serving as the inspiration for this piece.



And here is the work in progress. Before going any further with the architecture I will work on establishing the colors and values in the foreground since it will have a direct effect on the final appearance of the buildings.




Using the retrospectoscope I think the buildings should have been smaller, but the deed is done and I have no desire to start over.

CASTELNUOVO DELLA DAUNIA

still burns brightly in my heart. After weeks of staring at the photos, and later the drawing on the white paper, I overcame the inertia that I could not understand and began painting.


Castelnuovo watercolor 14x20

One of these days I will learn how to loosen up my approach with watercolor. I envy the wc artists whose blogs I follow who paint with such free abandonment.

FOUR YEARS AGO

I painted my first acrylics. I was tired of spending so much money framing pastels and clay mono types and decided to work on canvas. Reviewing pics of the the early work and I was struck by the similarities of my first 2 paintings and the last 2. I guess we don't always change as much as we like to think we do.

From 2004...


Sunlight 24x24


Bright horizon 12x28

See my last two posts for the most recent work