Rock of Salvation

I love listening to gospel music. There are times when it feels like the lyrics are speaking the sentiments of my heart – expressing my own faith more powerfully than I can do myself. During one of those gospel sessions, I was struck by the phrase “the rock of salvation.” It conjured a powerful visual image, and I suddenly felt myself challenged to present the gospel phrase in one of my paintings.

I’ve turned to a favorite theme, a massive stone lighthouse towering over a storm-tossed sea, for Rock of Salvation. The lighthouse seems to grow directly out of the craggy rock that rises from the ocean depths – a rock that has weathered countless storms. A regatta of brave sailboats keeps the rock in view, relying on its light for guidance while the sunset reminds us of the inexorable passage of time.

Rock of Salvation is a heroically-sized canvas and a richly detailed tribute to the dazzling spectacle God provides us with each of His glorious sunsets. It perpetuates a tradition of lavishly detailed religious art that dates at least to the Middle Ages. Heaven truly is in the details. I especially like the way the delicate stairway leading to the house is carved directly into solid rock. We do well when our domestic world so functionally incorporates God’s creation.

Rock of Salvation will be the last creation in my Seaside Memories Collection. Though watching the “sun set over” this seven-year series of works is nostalgic and slightly bittersweet, I look forward to the “sun rise” of a new coastal series in the near future.