For watercolor artists, “sketching” means painting on site, using watercolor paints. Dave has a travel palette and a stool he often uses. Sometimes he paints standing up.
Dave answers the question, “Why sketch versus take a photo?”
“Sketching asks me to slow down and observe the scene before me closely, emphasizing/exaggerating the parts that excite me or lift my heart to worship. Now that I’m 72 with a chronic lung disease, I’m more aware of how fast life is going and how brief our life span is. Sketching captures a moment in time at a specific place where I am reacting spontaneously to what I see. This slows down time for a bit. I can later return to this time and place over and over by looking at the sketch I created. I can remember my emotions and what was happening that day.
“For me, beauty captures the awe I feel when I encounter the Living God in creation and in Jesus Christ through the scriptures and prayer. “One thing I ask of the Lord, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire at his temple” (Psalm 27:4). I sketch scenes that make me stop and say, “Wow, thank you, Lord,” and the one to two hours of paying attention to shapes, values and colors helps cement that emotion into my heart. May this exhibit of some of my sketches lift your heart to our beautiful Lord.”
Prints of Dave’s paintings are on display in the Ramp Gallery and are for sale for $100 each. All proceeds will benefit Dianne Ross’s ministry with children’s ministries directors in small churches and marginalized settings and with young adults getting started in children’s and youth ministry. Beginning in April 2017, Dianne cut back to 80% at Bethany. She spends 20% of her time in a ministry of mentoring and equipping children’s ministries directors and young adults heading into ministry. It is Dave’s privilege to support Dianne’s new ministry.
Contact Lynne Baab if you’d like to buy one (LMBaab@aol.com).