Story Behind the Art: The Story Behind Our NEW Winter Cove Collection
Story Behind the Art
The Story Behind Our NEW Winter Cove Collection
Welcome to the From the Heart Art Blog, where I share weekly inspiration to encourage & uplift you on your faith journey!
From stories behind the art I create to behind-the-scenes looks into the creative process to DIY tutorials and more... I post a new blog post every single Wednesday to share, uplift, & encourage you on your journey! Welcome to the blog & I can't wait to connect with you through this new blog space every single week. If you want to know when new blog posts go live, make sure to join our exclusive email newsletter community! Pssst... as part of my exclusive email subscriber community, you'll also get first looks into sales & specials, too! Click here & then scroll to the bottom to join!
Inspired By My Love of Old Barns & Old Churches
If you’ve known me very long, you know that I have a thing for old barns and old churches. Painting them brings me so much joy!
The setting for so many of my favorite childhood memories happens to be my Grandparent’s farm in South Alabama. I enjoyed gathering there with my cousins during the Summer and holidays. Playing and exploring in Grandaddy’s old barn was always a highlight of our time together.
Feeding the Creative Imagination
It definitely fed the creative imagination in me! I can still remember the strong aroma of hay, dirt and animals, but I don’t remember ever experiencing fear of snakes, spiders, or falling off the ladder or through the old loft floor while playing there. Any of those things could have easily happened but I don’t think I ever considered them to reside in a place I enjoyed so much. I think I reserved all that fear for time spent UNDER their house!
Grandmother had racks under the crawl space of the house that she used to store her crop of potatoes and onions. We were often recruited to crawl under the house to gather potatoes or onions for her to use in a meal she was preparing.
Where I Find Joy
In revisiting these precious memories I can see how even today, fear doesn’t usually reside in the places that joy has my focused attention, but it certainly does take up so much space in the places I dread or don’t find enjoyment; therefore, I end up allowing fear to be my focus.
Old Churches Have a Special Place in My Heart
Old churches have a special place in my heart, too! Anytime we stayed the weekend at the farm with our grandparents, Grandaddy always loaded all of us up in his old Ford truck and took us to the little white church at the end of the dirt road.
I can still remember the love and warmth that I felt there. I can remember the sound of him singing Amazing Grace with so much heart and passion. He quite often volunteered us to “do a special” if we happened to all be there together.
Just in case you aren’t familiar with what “a special” is, the simplest way to describe it is a song, usually a special request, that someone or a group of people sing in front of the church. Amazing Grace was Grandaddy’s favorite and Heavenly Sunlight was Mr Louie Galloway’s favorite.
Planting Seeds...
When I’m painting churches, I always have that little white church named Antioch in mind. God’s hand was on my life even way back then. He was planting seeds and teaching me to serve others even before I really knew Him. Later in life I would end up landing in another little white church that greatly impacted my life. Little white churches were the birthing place of many spiritual markers in my life.
God's Seeking After You
It’s interesting how revisiting childhood memories like these actually helps me recognize patterns in my life. It also helps me recognize God’s hand was on my life even before I even knew Him! Even before I was seeking Him, He was seeking after me!
What a precious gift that is to be reminded of this! Next time you see an old barn or old church that I have painted, just know that I was probably revisiting sweet memories with many of those brush strokes.
"All Things" Will Be Used for Your Good & His Glory
I pray that when you see my paintings or hear my stories, it will trigger some memories of your own life that will enable you to see His loving hand on your life and give you assurance that He was seeking after you long before you sought Him out & that you might find comfort in knowing that even in the painful or unpleasant memories, “all things” are His servants and will eventually be used for your good and His glory.
Your story is still unfolding. He is at work weaving a beautiful story in you!
Sincerely,
Pam Coxwell | From the Heart Art
PS The Fall Collection is now on sale here - no code needed!
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