Welcome to Sophie's Nature Art!

Welcome back to a blog post about a unique project!

Who hasn't been there? You're hiking and stand at a fork in the road and don't know which path to take. How helpful it is to see the markings that indicate the chosen route! A map or a board with an overview of the routes can also be very helpful.

In the Bible, Jesus tells a parable of two paths (see. Matthew 7:12-14). They are only three verses and yet throughout history these three verses have been the inspiration for sermons, poems, songs and works of art.
So this image of the broad and the narrow path is something that has accompanied and moved me for many years.

As children, we had a jigsaw puzzle of what is probably the most famous work on the subject, designed by Charlotte Reihlen in 1867. I was always impressed by the picture. I still admire it very much today. I like the style, as I am a fan of the 18th and 19th centuries.

At some point I read the book „The pilgrimage“ by John Bunyan. A lot could be written about this book and its genesis alone. But let me just mention here that the experiences of the pilgrim Christian gave me food for thought. Somewhere in my head, a small thought arose. It was still so small, like a tiny seed that imperceptibly pushes its first green from the earth. Like a young plant growing inconspicuously among many large and beautiful plants, somewhere in my head, which was busy with so many other good ideas and projects, this little thought kept growing.

My favorite author is Ellen G. White. She also lived in the 19th century. I love her books because they sparked a love in me for Jesus and his word, the Bible. Apart from the Bible, no other books have had such a positive influence on my life. 
In her books, one occasionally encounters thoughts and images that describe the two paths. In particular, she describes the last section that the pilgrim has to walk to the heavenly city. (If you would like to read it, you can here do).
These pictures left an even deeper impression on me than John Bunyan's book. At some point, I consciously noticed the little plant of thought. It was the idea of painting a modern version of the image of the broad and the narrow way. I shuddered at the thought. It would be a very large and time-consuming project. I didn't feel at all ready for it. So this little idea bobbled around in my head for maybe a year or two. It came up from time to time, but there were always enough reasons to put it off until some distant point in the future. Until one fine day last August, when I received a message with a request.

I was asked whether I could imagine working for the LAY Congress to paint a picture. This congress is still a young project by young adults from the Adventist Church. There is always a prayer room at this congress. This picture was to be exhibited in the prayer room. The young woman who sent me the request had herself made a small sketch of the wide and narrow path as a teenager. The idea that you can start anew with God at any time was formative for her. Every day is day one with God! 
She asked me if I could paint a similar picture for the next congress in March 2024.

That got me into real trouble. On the one hand, all my thoughts were bubbling away about what I could paint into the picture and I was overcome with great motivation for this picture. On the other hand, I also had a few questions: How should it be realized? Am I even artistically capable of doing it? Is it feasible in terms of time?
I remembered a deal I made with God over 10 years ago at mission school: I will accept any challenge God puts in front of me! God, for His part, would give me the strength and the success.
This pact with God has already led to many adventures and incredible experiences.
So I also went into prayer with this new challenge and asked for wisdom. It didn't take very long for me to accept this great challenge. This little plant had been growing in my head for too long. Now the time had come for the plant to be ready for harvest.

But since I had to and wanted to finish another picture (see last blog entry), the starting point for the new project was delayed until November 2023, when I began with the first drafts and sketches. I had already thought about which scenes I wanted to include in the picture. My client also contributed some brilliant ideas to the picture.

Here you can see one of the first drafts:
The original idea was to paint the picture in landscape format. That way, the wide path could have run along the bottom and the narrow path along the top. But this format would also have had some disadvantages. So I decided to choose the portrait format. This automatically solved a few problems.

Within about two weeks, I had all the drafts ready. I searched the internet for reference images for the individual scenes and modified them for the picture. Some things, like a few houses or the figures, I created myself. That would have been unthinkable for me before this picture. I wouldn't have dared to do it. But I always prayed for God's guidance and wisdom before I started sketching. I was able to experience how he gave me thoughts and ideas.

When the sketches were roughly finished in my head, I drew them scene by scene on individual A4 sheets, then stapled them together and arranged them on the 100x70cm canvas.

So I had the rough timetable for the picture ready. 
The next step was to transfer the sketches to the picture. This was another laborious task. But eventually that was done too.
All in all, this process took about a month. After all these sketches and drafts, I was finally looking forward to picking up paint and brushes again.

I made my first brushstrokes just in time for Christmas! What a special moment that was! It was somehow exciting to take on this big project. Would I be able to realize everything the way I imagined it? Would I make it in time? March was less than three months away!
I realized that I could not paint this picture on my own. So I laid it at God's feet in prayer and asked God to guide the brush. I've never prayed as much while painting as I did with this picture. You could almost say: Every brushstroke was a prayer!

The picture had to be painted from top to bottom. The first thing to be colored was the wall of the heavenly city. We had to start with it because the clouds were painted over it afterwards. It was a sacred moment when I painted the golden city wall. Jesus and the pilgrim, whom Jesus joyfully embraces, were the first figures I painted in this picture.

Next came the full contrast program! I mixed a black and red, which served as the background for eternal death and the deep divide between the two paths. Over this came the clouds of doom and eternal death in the form of a graveyard.
I created the picture piece by piece. Once I worked on the narrow path, then I switched back to the wide path. In between, new ideas kept popping up. My younger brother and friends also helped me with useful ideas.

The biggest challenge in this picture was the dragon. I spent four hours on this monster alone. After that, I was on the verge of giving up on the painting in discouragement. I was truly in the gorge of temptation!
I was able to successfully avoid the tail and most of the hind legs by painting rocks in front of them 🙂

Speaking of rocks: that's also a difficult subject for me. I fail at it every time. For this painting too, I watched a few YouTube videos to get some helpful tips. I often painted over the rock faces and started again. The painting spatulas have been a great help here. You can achieve great effects with them. The rock faces also helped me to better understand the principle of light and shadow. To cover up some of the mistakes, I generously planted some of the rock faces with greenery 🙂

Maybe you're wondering how I managed to get the whole thing done in time? 
I am very grateful to God for giving me the gift of time management (sometimes I exaggerate a bit). But it was very helpful for this project. I always looked at the clock to see how long I was painting. Within the Christmas week until New Year's Eve, I got about that far:

I knew how many hours it had taken me until then and measured how much surface area I had covered in that time. This allowed me to calculate how much more time I would need until completion. I drew up a schedule until the end of February. I stuck to it exactly and, to God's glory, it worked out perfectly! 
Exactly one day before the congress, after more than 200 hours of work, I finished the last revisions and added the final details. The last thing I painted was Jesus as the good shepherd in front of the narrow gate. So Jesus was the beginning and the end of my painting, the alpha and the omega. It turned out that way quite unintentionally. But that is exactly how it should be: Jesus should be the first in everything we are and do, and he should also be the last. He appears a total of six times in this picture.

Last but not least, the picture was coated with a final varnish so that the colors would stay bright for a long time and hopefully become a blessing for many people.
This is how this great work was completed! Through this image, I can empathize with God as Creator so much better. In the Bible we read that every day of creation God looked at his work in the evening and saw that it was good. I felt the same way. After each day of painting, I looked at the picture from a distance and was (usually) satisfied. I could feel a little bit of God's joy in the creative process. When God had finished the creation, he looked at everything again and gave it a „very good“! Unlike me, God didn't have to touch up or rework anything. But when I had finished the picture, I was just incredibly grateful and overjoyed. I wouldn't call it „very good“ now, because I still see a lot of imperfections in it. But that's okay with me. I'm just a weak and imperfect person. My gifts and sacrifices that I bring to God are just as imperfect. But God can make something great out of them! All he wants is for us to make ourselves available to him. That's what I did with the picture. I gave what I could and God put his blessing on it. Now it is up to God to speak to people through this picture.

My prayer is that this picture will be a blessing for many! May every viewer recognize his or her own path and current position in the picture. May everyone who looks at this picture be encouraged to turn to the cross and this brilliant God. It is never too late to turn back to God as long as we are alive! Every day we can start anew with God!
Yes, it is true that the path with God is not easy. It is narrow, steep and dangerous. But God has given us his promises like little flowers that line the side of the road. He gives us places where we can rest and recharge our batteries. The path requires self-sacrifice and giving up the ego, but the closer we get to the heavenly city, the greater our peace and joy will be. The broad path is easy to walk. We don't have to choose it, we walk it automatically. But its end is dead certain! Dear reader, choose today which path you want to take! Don't get discouraged if you keep straying from the right path. Look to Jesus, trust him and don't let him go! When we fall, he stretches out his strong hand to us to lift us up again.

Finally, a few words about the congress. The painting was exhibited in the prayer room. In my small room, where I had painted it, it seemed huge, but in this beautiful old Art Nouveau room it seemed small, but also somehow right.

I was delighted that one or two congress participants found their way into the prayer room and looked at the picture.
I received a lot of positive feedback.
The question also arose as to whether this picture could also be printed. I had a photo taken with a good camera and am now waiting for it to be sent to me so that I can have it printed. Anyone who would like to have a print version of this picture is welcome to contact me (sophie-naumann@gmx.net).

Here you can see the picture again in full size:

If you would like to see this picture in real life, please feel free to contact me!
It has found its home in the premises of AKTIVE CHRISTEN e.V. Leipzig. 
However, it is also possible to borrow this picture for events. If you are interested, just send me an e-mail!

Here you will get to the first chapter of the explanation of the individual scenes in the picture. I invite you on an exciting journey through life!

Update 14.07.2024: The picture is now available as a print version in A1 format. Here below you can go directly to my new online store!