A Silent Witness of Our Great Creator God

As a quadriplegic artist, I need the help of someone else’s hands whenever I wheel up to my easel. A friend must wash and prepare my brushes, pour the linseed oil and turpentine into small cups, squeeze tubes of paint, mix colors on the palette, adjust my canvas so I can reach it, raise the easel, and then when I’m finished… do all the clean up! All this takes extra time and so I cannot move at the same speed other artists do (who use their hands). Which makes watercolors a more challenging medium for me.

For instance, when I began my rendering titled Silent Witness, I plotted beforehand how to move more quickly to capture the unique characteristics of gouache painting. First, I sketched the composition on a large piece of watercolor paper. Overnight, I submerged the paper in water. The next morning, I had my friend flatten it to my art board, placing the composition upside down.

With my brush soaked in wet, brown paint, I lightly pressed it against the paper to create tree trunks. Then, I gently lifted my brush off the surface and watched the paint trickle down the paper to create branches. After the color set, we flipped the composition upright and I painted the buck and his doe. I didn’t worry about making the deer anatomically correct; instead, with just a few strokes I captured their attitude, just enough detail in their posture to help the viewer recognize them as deer.

I wanted us to “stumble” upon these deer as if we were walking through a snowy wood in the moonlight: Shh! we whisper, Look! It’s a deer! The buck raises his head, unsure of our presence. We stand motionless with excitement and wonder, filled with awe that we’ve encountered one of God’s creatures in the wild!

The buck and his doe are indeed a silent witness of our great Creator God.

Psalm 33:8 says, “Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.”

Our Father God has set unparalleled beauty before us, inviting us to recognize the quiet witness of his creative majesty so that we might stand in awe.

When we do, those moments fill us with the same delight and excitement found in this moonlit clearing.

– Joni Eareckson Tada