The Good Coach colouring book - Written and illustrated by me!

This is my first book published, and there are already a thousand copies waaaaaay down in Paraguay, and five hundred more waiting to be distributed in Northern Manitoba this summer! Thanks to Albert Martens, missionary athlete who initiated this idea and asked me to do this colouring book. It's based on and adapted from a book called "The Good Artist" written by John Place. 

You can read the whole book on my website thegoodcoach.ca and download the pages to colour for free!

I am so excited to be able to share this with the world, it has a great message. It's a parable about the bible, creation, God the Father and Jesus taking on the sins of the whole world and dying in our place, as well as the Holy Spirit, given to us. Hope you enjoy it!

My first commissioned Children's Book

This book, written by Tracy Marton, was illustrated using watercolour. It's the first of a series in which more characters will be introduced in each book. I'm finished illustrating the pages and now I'm working on the layout.

Snowy Owl

My Snowy Owl was really frustrating at first. I finally was satisfied after re-painting it three or four times.

Giant paintings of Churchill, Manitoba

Here are some 8 foot paintings I did for a fundraising event. They were doing a marathon in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada!

Key of David

I was inspired to paint this key, with the Star of David in it last year. I wasn't sure what to paint underneath it at first, but after some thought and prayer, I painted the New Jerusalem, according to my imagination. This was a very fun painting, 4 feet tall by 3 feet wide, with all those fabulous bright colours! I did most of this with a pallet knife.

About half a year later, I was at Beckah Shae's first concert in Winnipeg, and behold at the merch table was this necklace! I believe she designed it.

What's Happening at the Art Scene

The house was filled with rich jazzy music while a lady contentedly sketched in the background and a group of men in the kitchen talked about a range of things from art to hunting. People laughed and talked, met new people and enjoyed the music and art.

This month’s Art Stream Open House was also a blast, yet totally different from the previous one. This time it was held on a Friday night and there was almost an entirely different crowd. Around 25 in all. At seven o’clock I was wondering where everybody was, while at the same time I was glad I could quickly finish cleaning up before people started coming. Soon enough people started streaming in, helping themselves to refreshments and chatting, meeting up with old friends, neighbors’ and developing brand new relationships and connections.

One eleven year old girl who came was inspired to do a painting. “I don’t have a lot of time to paint lately,” she said, “because of school and other activities.” We got her some paints, an easel and a canvas and she went to town painting a bright red sky with a pink textured ground, and finished it off with a blue hand print in the sky. It was fun to watch how free she was in her painting expression, all the while the band played in the background.

 

Shauna Hart started off singing her song “A Mother’s Heart” which was written for the Friesen family, who’s two year old son Cash is dealing with brain cancer. People were touched by that song in particular. We all appreciated and enjoyed the music and many expressed their appreciation of Shauna’s beautiful voice and the talented musicians. Later on in the evening a friend sang along and I made a shaker instrument out of my porcelain pomegranate by filling it with uncooked macaroni and joined in with the band as well.

One family stayed long past what they intended, “This place has such a restful atmosphere,” the husband said as he leaned back into the couch, “I don’t even want to leave.” Most people left after ten, while a few stayed and talked until 12:30am.

Did you know that some of the art displayed in the Loewen Art Green Scene has never been publicly displayed before? At first I was surprised to hear that so many gifted artist’s were quite hesitant to display their art. But as I thought about it, it made sense to me. A person’s art is an expression of something inside of them. It is putting a voice to something that would otherwise be left unheard. It is putting your heart on display for the world to critique. That can be a very scary thing.

Here is a safe place for emerging artists to bring their art and know that it will be appreciated for its uniqueness. I believe one artist’s work should not be compared to another artist’s work. Really, every work of art is extremely unique and personal. One should only be comparing what they did today to what they did last month or last year, and from there work to improve themselves.

To all the hidden artist’s out there, consider bringing a piece of your art to display at the Loewen Green Art Scene, and let your unique voice be heard!
And make sure you join our ‘Art Scene’ Facebook page – share links and ideas with other artists, upload photos to critique one another’s work and find out about upcoming opportunities with the Arts! Just type ‘Art Scene’ into the search bar on your Facebook account (choose the one with the 306 Reimer Address).
Submitted by Cheryl Nickel, Resident Artist

'Rhythm of the Roar' Lion Painting

This is a result of a workshop taught by Daylon Brown at the Steinbach Art Centre. It's like nothing I've ever done before. Looks like it's a new day in the creative department!

Why did I choose to paint a roaring lion, you may ask. Well, I woke up with a song in my head that goes "He is the lion of the tribe of Judah, Jesus took our chains, broke them and freed us and now he is our rock of victory... Oh He is the hope of Israel" 

After painting this, I had another song on my mind by Jason Upton. It goes like this, "Hear the sound of the Lion of Judah, see the fire and the fear in the enemy's camp, hear the sound of the Lion of Judah, roaring again. There's a new generation arising, a nameless faceless placeless tribe, all they fear is the fear of the Lord, all they hear is the Lion of Judah!"

I decided to look up scriptures to do with a roaring lion and found the following:

Amos 3:8 'The lion has roared— who will not fear? The Sovereign LORD has spoken— who can but prophesy?'

Revelation 5:5 'Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.'

Revelation 10:3 'and he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. When he shouted, the voices of the seven thunders spoke.'

The verse that really struck me was this one, because it ties in with another painting I did a few months ago:

Proverbs 19:12 'A king’s rage is like the roar of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass'

And so here is my 'Dew on the Grass' painting juxtaposed to the roaring lion. Speaks volumes to me.