Prayer Place Painting - Finally!

It has been a busy Summer with family and painting. Time for some updates.

I have completed the North Carolina painting. The title is "Living Waters". As I explained in my last post this is a special place for me that takes me very close to our Creator. It is not a quiet place. The falling, rushing water is very present. You can hear it for quite a while as you approach. For me it speaks of the Living water that Jesus offers and it drowns out the rest of the world so I can be close, without distraction, and deep in prayer.

My prayer for you is that you find those places in your life where you feel the presence of God and can have a quiet, or not so quiet, moment to just be with Him.

More updates coming soon... A Beatitudes mural, a 'life of Jesus' mural that I am very excited to share and much more.

Prayer Place - North Carolina

Photo Reference for my "Living Waters" painting.

This is an amazingly beautiful place in a hiking area near Brevard, North Carolina. This is not a quiet place. The rushing waters of the falls have volume but it is a very peaceful and very prayerful place for me. I visit as often as I can. The bench will be in the painting because it is so welcoming. It says, 'sit down, spend some time in prayer, be a part of this beautiful creation of God'. The current title for this painting is 'Living Waters' and it should be completed in the next couple of days. Look for a post soon...

Private Chapels

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. Matthew 6:6

Many years ago I was reading an article about a couple who had purchased a large historically significant home in Winter Park, Florida. They loved many things about the home but they were most excited about the private chapel room that was a part of the home. It was grand but intimate and they said it brought a certain peace when they spent time in the room.

My first thought was how great that would be to have a place like that. Followed quickly by the realization that I could, though on a smaller scale, create a special prayerful place in my home and so could anyone else. I started looking for books and websites that talked about how people had created chapel like places in their homes and came to understand that there is no standard to be followed. In fact, they are as personal as each of our relationships are with God.

As an artist and a mural painter, I have had an opportunity to paint focal points for these prayerful places. Paintings with deep personal meaning for the family or individual. Paintings that hopefully bring a sense of peace to a small area in a home where someone can stop for a moment, close the door and pray to their Father in heaven, who is unseen.

If you have not already, find some place in your home and make it a special place where you can at any moment, stop and immerse yourself in the love of the Father. We need Him, everyday, all throughout our day, and sometimes we need a place where we can focus on Him alone, all alone. God Bless You on your journey back to Him.

Originals or Prints?

I hope to talk more about how we can create chapels and prayerful places in our homes. I believe that inspired art can be a great way to create a focus in that prayerful place. I know that prints can make art more affordable and available to more people. However, for that special place in your home or church I believe that prayerfully created artwork, by the hands of the artist, contain that spark from the Creator that is lessened in mass production. The US bishops agree:

Quality art draws the beholder to the Creator, who stands behind the artist sharing his own creative power, for the "divine Artist passes on to the human artist a spark of his own surpassing wisdom."¹⁶³ This is true of music, architecture, sculpture, painting, pottery making, textiles, and furniture making, as well as other art forms that serve the liturgical environment. The integrity and energy of a piece of art, produced individually by the labor of an artist, is always to be preferred above objects that are mass-produced.
Excerpt from: Built of Living Stones

I am on a constant quest to include prayer in my creative process. My prayer is a hope that I will stay out of the way and let the painting become a God directed inspirational piece with great meaning. Whether or not I actually get out of the way and that happens is another story. But I also pray for the person or church that ends up owning the piece. That is how it becomes a prayerful painting and I hope a blessing to that person on their journey back to Him.

Buy original, inspiring art anytime you can. God Bless You on Your Journey.

The Annunciation

"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said."

To have faith like this. Maybe that is why I paint the Annunciation, this beautiful moment in time when Mary said yes. We remember and bow our heads during the creed in awe that the Son would come down and be among us to save us from all of the times when we say 'yes' to the world.

My prayer tonight is that my 'yes' will be as a servant of the Lord. God Bless You on this Journey back to Him.

Prayerful Places

Remember that special place where you felt connected and at peace with your creator? We can fully connect with God like this anywhere and it does not have to be in a special place. There are times, however, when the place does set the stage for this intimate conversation and I like to call them 'prayerful places'. They may be a church or pilgrimage site but often times they are out in nature or other out of the way places.

I have found many of these places along the path on this journey back to Him. Some of the paintings on this blog are of prayerful places that will always have a special memory for me. When I look at the paintings they take me back and I hope they also invite you, the viewer of the painting, in.


My prayer with these paintings is to be part of the call to artists by John Paul II to create new sacred works that draw us to adoration, prayer and to the love of God. Now here is my call to you:

• If you have ever encountered one of these 'prayerful places' please email me at scott@catholicartsource.com or DM me on Twitter. I would love to know your story and if you have photos, it might be the inspiration for my next painting.
• As you journey through life, keep track of any of these places that you might encounter. Take pictures and take notes and please share them with this community.

Thank you and God Bless You on this journey back to Him.

A Special Place

Last Summer I went to a Summer Conference at Franciscan University in Stuebenville, Ohio. I found a very prayerful place in the tiny Portiuncula Chapel on campus. I took photos of the place for future reference for a painting. I placed the chapel in a different setting. The normal setting is among tall trees and is very beautiful. The experience for me was more of a stop along a spiritual path (maybe the road to Emmaus?) and so I painted it in a new location.

Since then the chapel has been has been designated by the Vatican as a place where the faithful can receive a plenary indulgence—an elimination of the temporal punishment due to sin. You can read more about that here

The door is always open. Go and spend some time with Jesus. God Bless you on your journey.