In the spring of this year, I created a mixed media collage painting for an art show that was held in conjunction with a missions conference at the Bible college I attended. The subject matter was  “Captive” and the speaker was Gracia Burnham, a Christian missionary who was captured by Muslim terrorists back in 2002.  She spent a year in captivity and saw her husband, Martin,  murdered before being released.  When I was creating the painting, I only knew the subject matter, but did not know it was for a missions conference or anything about who the speaker would be. Gracia wrote a book called “To Fly Again” that tells of God’s grace to start life again with new dreams after going through her captivity and the loss of her husband. I love it when the Spirit of God is active without us even knowing He is inspiring us:) Here is the process I went through in creating this piece of artwork.

Step 1
Draw lots of thumbnail sketches.



Step 2
Prime the hardboard with 3 coats of gesso and sand it with a fine grade of sandpaper. (Tip – Make sure you paint a large “X”  from corner to corner on the back of the hardboard to keep it from warping.)

Step 3
Paste my selected collage papers with gel medium and coat the entire canvas with one final coat of gel medium before I begin the painting process.



Step 4
Transfer my drawing to the canvas.

Step 5
Paint with fluid acrylics, oil paint sticks, charcoal, and Pitt pens.

Step 6
Varnish the finished painting with gloss varnish.