Madi Schultz-
Sophomore at
James Madison University-
Harrisonburg, Virginia,
shares a bit about her art project
of faith encouragement
that she made for her mom.
"I made these canvases
for my mom for her birthday-
she was looking for art to display in the house,
and I liked the idea of a four seasons display.
However, I wanted to make it unique;
more than just four trees.
I’d recently been reading Psalm 147
and verse 16 stood out to me--
“He spreads the snow like wool
and the frost like ashes.”
I took four canvases,
decided on a color palette
to loosely stick to,
then got to work.
Inspired by the imagery of Psalm 147.
I painted winter first;
James Madison University-
Harrisonburg, Virginia,
shares a bit about her art project
of faith encouragement
that she made for her mom.
"I made these canvases
for my mom for her birthday-
she was looking for art to display in the house,
and I liked the idea of a four seasons display.
However, I wanted to make it unique;
more than just four trees.
I’d recently been reading Psalm 147
and verse 16 stood out to me--
“He spreads the snow like wool
and the frost like ashes.”
I took four canvases,
decided on a color palette
to loosely stick to,
then got to work.
Inspired by the imagery of Psalm 147.
a huge, full evergreen
with snow-glistened boughs.
I wanted to incorporate pages
from scripture in order
to tie together the separate pieces.
I covered these pages with white paint
and created snow drifts from them.
Next I moved on to fall.
I’ve always loved the way birch trees look;
and the white bark lent itself to another use
of painted scripture pages.
I was really proud of the way
the autumn leaves
the autumn leaves
turned out. The texture and color
reminded me of blustery, sunny days.
I chose Isaiah 40:8,
“The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of God endures forever”
for my autumn verse for a few reasons.
First, because it reminds me of my mom.
The first page in her journaling Bible features
this verse surrounded by whimsical
hand-drawn flowers.
Secondly, I chose this particular verse
because autumn
is a season of beautiful death and rebirth.
It is a good reminder that through all
the ‘seasons’ of our lives,
God is constant, and He is good.
Next came spring.
I knew that I had to incorporate
cherry blossoms because they remind me
so much of home.
Growing up in the suburbs of D.C.,
anticipating and visiting the cherry blossoms
on the mall is the epitome of spring-time.
I chose a verse that captured
some of the excitement of this beautiful season
of beginnings and blossoms;
Song of Solomon 2:12 –
“Flowers appear on the earth,
the time for singing has come.”
In this piece, I used the scripture pages
as the flowers,
which was neat because
it gave the piece more texture and depth.
Finally, I painted a summer canvas.
I decided to paint a willow tree
with a little stream running behind it.
This scene was largely inspired
by our backyard.
There’s a little trickle
(you probably couldn’t even call it a stream),
that runs up to a beautiful willow
in our neighbor's yard.
When we were younger and it used to rain,
we used to run rampant
in that little patch of the neighborhood.
I chose Psalm 1:3 for this canvas:
“He is like a tree planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.”
Summer is a verdant time,
and our God is a God of abundance;
with Him we’ll never want.
It’s awesome how the character of God
is present in all seasons."
Thanks to Madi for sharing her
creative process in this very special gift.
It is easy to see why we call her
a "visual faith encourager."
creative process in this very special gift.
It is easy to see why we call her
a "visual faith encourager."
