Painting Revelations: A Spiritual Odyssey

By Carol Mansfield

It was early in the morning of May 13, 2015, during my time of prayer and meditation, that a life-altering message came roaring through to me: "PAINTING REVELATIONS." With those two words, I was shown what to do and how to begin. I was to paint my way through the Book of Revelation and then write a book of revelations about that painting process. At the time, I had no idea that Painting Revelations would also come to refer to the images in my paintings that would REVEAL themselves spontaneously as the paint dried. I started out intentionally designing and painting the first piece in this series. Then I experimented with POURING the paint onto my canvas and the odyssey began. Over the course of about a year, I poured twenty-two large acrylic paintings. When the paint had dried, TWENTY of those paintings contained images from the Book of Revelation. ELEVEN of the paintings illustrated Revelation chapters ENTIRELY without intervention from me. When the series was complete, I was astounded to realize that 90 percent of my poured paintings had Revelation imagery spontaneously appear as the paint dried""that reality blew me away. To me, it was tangible proof of an incredible fact: THE HOLY SPIRIT IS WITH US""NOT JUST IN THE PAST, BUT TODAY""IN ALL OUR LIVES. AND HE'S MAKING HIS PRESENCE KNOWN.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644585252

Book preview

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Painting Revelations

A Spiritual Odyssey

Carol Mansfield

Copyright © 2019 by Carol Mansfield

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Talking About the Process: The Old Process

The New Process Begins

Surprise as Things Dried

Techniques Defined

My Story

Faith Stories

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Part I

Painting Revelations The Process Revealed

Preface

Welcome to Painting Revelations: A Spiritual Odyssey. Before I begin my story, I’d like to make a few important points:

Point number 1 is that this is a work of NONFICTION . I am simply stating my truth. All events unfolded as written.

Point number 2 is that I have been an artist for many years. The process of painting often takes me into a deep, relaxed state of meditation. It seems similar to hypnosis, but I remain fully conscious. NO drugs or alcohol have ever been involved in this process.

Point number 3 is the most important one, I believe in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Raised Catholic, I have literally felt the presence of the Holy Spirit at work in my life more times than I could possibly count. So when the Spirit causes miraculous things to occur in my life, I believe and rejoice, and I’m THANKFUL!

I hope, that as you read my story, you are moved to feel the awesome power of Spirit at work in all of us.

It was early in the morning of May 13, 2015, during my time of prayer and meditation that a life altering message came roaring through to me: PAINTING REVELATIONS.

With those two words, I was shown what to do and how to begin. I was to paint my way through the Book of Revelation and then write a book of revelations about the painting process.

At the time, I had no idea that Painting Revelations would also come to refer to the images in my paintings that would reveal themselves spontaneously as the paint dried.

Talking About the Process: The Old Process

This series of paintings began in the middle of the Book of Revelation with the idea for chapter 11 coming first. Witnessing the Witnesses came through visually and was painted intentionally. Like most of the Spiritual paintings that I’ve done over the past thirty years or so, the inspiration for this painting followed a familiar process and carried a familiar sense of urgency—like a spiritual push to create.

In that old process, I would first see parts of the image in my mind. Then I would see the colors I needed to use and the size it should be. I’d paint what I saw. As more details came through, I’d add them. The process went on and on—sometimes for weeks. It was a lot like putting together a jigsaw puzzle without the benefit of the picture on the box.

Once the painting felt complete, I would sign it. Usually that same night—as I drifted off to that beautiful, relaxed place between being awake and being asleep—the title for the painting would come through to me with a BANG! And with a rush of energy, I would write those exact words on a tablet I kept by my bed for that sole purpose.

My next step would be taking the title words I had received and searching through my Bible concordance to see what chapters were referenced by those words. Then I’d read through those corresponding chapters in my Bible. Each time, the title words led me to a description of the painting I HAD ALREADY COMPLETED.

So for three decades, that was the path I followed for my spiritual paintings. There were about a dozen examples interspersed with hundreds of regular paintings. The path changed when I felt the PUSH to begin Painting Revelations, and my quiet spiritual journey turned into a wild