WHAT IS SOUL PAINTING?
Soul painting is a spiritual journey which uses the painting process to help you listen to your inner voice and make a connection to your Creator. Think of soul painting as the evolution of a visual prayer offered to God. By being intentional in your focus on God while painting you will often hear the prompting of God from your soul. Music plays an integral part as God will lead your hand much like a conductor in an orchestra.
The painting process begins with a selected bible verse and prayer asking God to pour His Spirit into your soul. All soul paintings begin with random placement of color and mark making techniques. After many layers of paint, God will often reveal objects in the graffiti and can give you a direction for the rest of the painting.
Everyone, of all ages, can do soul painting. You do not need to be an artist to reap the soul enriching rewards. It is an intuitive process of a variety of techniques with no thought of the final result. In addition to creating a connection with yourself and God, the creative process is healing for illness, grief, and depression.
This year Bridges Preschool and Wesley will be putting together an interactive advent booklet utilizing group and individual participation in creating soul paintings to coordinate with each day of advent. Families and individuals will be invited to complete each painting with a scripture, thought and prayer. Each family will be given their personal copy of the Advent Booklet and we will be printing extra so you can share with family and friends.
Below is a mockup of a sample page.
We will start working on this project as early as September and it will be open to anyone in the community who would like to participate. The first phase of this project will start with a large roll of heavy paper rolled out on tables where we will work in unity on one or two large pieces filling it with scripture, prayer, color, and mark making, creating several layers. There will be music and food.
The second phase of the project will be using cut out open frames to discover our favorite compositions and then cutting out 8 x 10 pieces that can be worked on individually. 24 of these pieces will be photographed to use in the advent pamphlet and the original pieces will be used to create a advent calendar display in the back of the sanctuary.
We have several upcoming sessions scheduled and you are invited to join one or more of the dates. We have moved the first three sessions to Fellowship Hall in the FLC from 11am – 2pm on Sat., Sept. 9 , Sept. 23 , and Sat., Oct. 14. Oct. 21 we will move to the Courtyard behind the sanctuary when the weather is cooler. This is an event geared for persons of all ages and the whole family within the community. On the third Saturdays , Sept. 23 and Oct. 21, Bridges Preschool will be sponsoring other games and activities planned for the whole family. On Sat., Oct. 21, Wesley will also be having their Annual Craft Fair in the Fellowship Hall from 9am -4pm.
RSVP is appreciated to help plan for lunch but not required. You can register here for the dates you would like to attend. You will need to register separately for each date you plan to attend.
You can take a peek into the process of creating the soul art used for the advent mock up here. These activities will be geared toward all age levels and skill levels. You can do it!
Also, see another example as a group activity with the grandkids Here!
With the smaller left over pieces of our larger art creation, we will be creating cards to be given out during Advent.
You can also see a modified version of this project here that we did at Habana Health Care.
Below is a simplified example of how you can start your soul painting. There are many ways you can start a soul painting. This is just one example.
Things we learn from Soul Painting that relates to our Spiritual Journey with God:
1. Do not worry about the outcome. This is hard for some, even professional artists, to learn to let go and just allow what happens to happen. It correlates with our spiritual journey in learning how to trust God for the outcome without trying to control things in our own strength.
2. Do not worry about what other people are doing. Stay focused on God and ask him to pour out His Spirit into your soul and guide your hand and your thoughts. We are all on our own spiritual journey and at different points in our life. God will guide us just where we are at.
3. There may be a point in our painting where you think your painting looks ugly. This is a common stage in most paintings. Stop and take some deep breaths, spend a moment being still or take a walk if you need. Talk to God. If you are physically tired, take a rest. But don’t walk away and not return to move ahead with your painting. There are often points in our life that are uncomfortable and disappointing and we do not understand what God is doing. But it is important to keep pressing forward.
4. Conversely, there may be a part of your painting you really like and want to resist covering it up with another layer. Close your eyes and paint another layer. The magic of soul painting is found in the depth of many layers of paint. Trust that some of what you like now will end up in the final painting or maybe something even better. You may be at a point of your spiritual journey where you like where you are at. God does not want you to stay there and miss an opportunity for a deeper relationship with Him.
5 Try to stay focused on your painting and not carry on conversations with others around you. If you speak, please keep the tone soft. Be respectful of others. When we are reaching out to God, it requires us to be focused and not be distracted with other things.
6. There will be guides to help encourage you and help you with your next step. God sends people to walk along with us in our spiritual journey to encourage us and to hold us accountable.
7. For many, this may be your first experience with soul painting and our goal of listening to God may confuse you. Hearing God does not often happen instantaneously and develops over time. Sometimes he will whisper to you later at an unexpected time. God will show up when we earnestly seek Him.
We hope you will return to paint with us some more as well as spending some private time setting up your own Soul Painting experience at home, It is God’s desire to pour His Spirit into your soul.