I heard the prompting “get into fine art.” It was 1973 and I had been praying about my future career path. My previous experience was in graphic art, art prints and picture framing. My wife and I had three young children alongside a growing dream of moving to a lifestyle block just north of Auckland. I confess I had never studied at art school. Added to this was my consternation of picturing most artists as being weird, living in attics and starving. In answer to my feelings of inadequacy, the next words that came gently to my heart were, “How much can you believe me for?” I took those words very seriously and wrote in my diary what I would believe God for in terms of future income and ability as an artist. By 1975, rich with God’s blessings, we had just moved onto our own little farmlet and I held my first exhibitions, one of which was in Christchurch. That year I also had the privilege of winning the Kelliher and Cambridge Art Awards, and I set up my own Gallery in downtown Auckland. In the art world I was most well known for my landscape paintings. A trip to Israel provided new inspiration and I became excited about doing paintings that were visual parables. To me, art is a language that can speak silently but powerfully to churched and non-churched people alike. If anything, the historical over-reaction to any art as idolatry has meant the secular world has used art as a form of communication more broadly than the church. My idea of painting parables was formed around taking the viewer on a voyage
of discovery, where not everything unfolded at once, but truth came through without having to rely on interpretations from art experts. To me, the exciting thing is that God can use art to reveal his heart just as much as he can use written and spoken words. Paintings never argue, only speak when looked at and go on reminding and reinforcing what they have to say every time they are viewed. Actually, they can do more than that because our minds store memories in picture form. A good painting can sit in the mind, touch the spirit and influence our lives far more than we realise. I have seen this in one of my sons who had a picture of the inside of a Scottish cottage on his wall from the time he could pull himself up in his cot. Two objects in this artwork were a fishing rod and a rifle, now many years later fishing and hunting are both past-times he enjoys. There are endless possibilities for having visual talking points in our homes, places of worship, offices, schools and camp facilities. As well as providing a hospitable environment, hanging art on the wall opens the way to offer a life-giving message. Graham’s paintings are now available as very high quality one-off prints in whatever size and on whatever substrate a person may choose; from post cards, to posters, to murals and everything in between on paper, canvas, metal, acrylic or plastic sheet, framed or unframed. A full range of his best paintings available as art-prints, can be viewed on his website: www.grahambraddock.net or www.pixels.com/artists/graham+braddock He also has a child friendly “How to Draw” teaching resource at www.grahambraddock.com
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