Friendship with God 1

Back in 2021 a local festival group decided to hold an open art exhibition on the theme of Friendship. I decided to paint and enter a series of three paintings on the theme of Friendship with God. Many people came to see the exhibition which saw many artists display their work in different community venues. I displayed the three paintings along with my Art Blessings, which I gave away to people. It was a great weekend, and I had some great conversations with people. Then in 2024, I gifted the three paintings to a Christian organisation in South Africa. A local group who we know well went out to create a prayer room for them (amongst other things), and so took my paintings and some Art Blessings for them. I’ll be sharing the three paintings here on the blog for the next two weeks.

This first of these paintings was ‘Breakfast with friends’. It shows Jesus and five disciples sat on the beach, around a fire. Jesus has a bucket of fish next to him, and there’s a boat with a rather full net of fish in the background. I’ve always loved the story in John 21 where the resurrected Jesus makes breakfast for the disciples. I heard a talk on it as a teenager, and I loved the idea of Jesus making breakfast for his friends. It’s an image I’ve drawn before; a simple image of fish cooking on a fire with the words ‘Jesus just wants to hang out with his friends’. When I knew that the theme of the exhibition was friendship, I knew I wanted to paint this scene again.

Next week, I’ll share the second painting in the series.