CAG WELCOMES YOU


WELCOME TO THE CONTEMPLATIVE ARTISTS GUILD SITE
We are an ecumenical group of artists who value the contemplative approach to our art and life. We find expression of our spirituality in the process of making art. We find connection to the divine in artistic creation of all kinds: painting, photography, sculpture, drawing, quilting and writing. Some of us do explicitly religious art and commissions, but many of us express our contemplative orientation in ways beyond religious content. All of these approaches are welcome.

KATHLEEN STARK • Madonna “Mary Holy Mother of God.”   It was inspired by a picture of a fresco on the wall of an Orthodox Ethiopian Church.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR: CAG UPCOMING MEETING TIME
Our next meeting will take place on the third Monday of the month, August 17, 2026 at 7:00 pm Eastern, 6:00 Central, 5:00 Mountain, and 4:00 Pacific. A Zoom link will be sent out to members prior to the meeting.

Contemplative Artists Guild meeting Monday August 17 on
Healing Art

This month’s moderator is Catherine Morgan from Georgia and her topic is Healing Art. I recommend you visit her website at https://heartpainter.com. 

Her whole aim with her artwork is to facilitate healing of the observer by contemplating her heart images, made with total immersion in prayer, letting God speak to the viewer through the prayer-made image. 

In many ways this reminds me of the process of painting icons, of laying down each layer of paint with prayer. And icons have been a source or tool for miraculous healings down through the ages.  Art historian Dr. Elizabeth Hurst calls icons “tools for the faithful to access the spiritual world—they served as spiritual gateways”  (from Khan Academy article on Byzantine Art).  This is also what Catherine aspires to with her paintings, even though they are not traditional icons. 

Most of her images are of hearts, but they are done with different colors and textures. She rigorously tests the images to make sure that they serve their purpose of facilitating healing.  See her articles on her website “What Makes a Painting Good News” and “Testing Paintings for Healing Power”. 

See what’s new :
Click on these member name-links below to see our most recent submissions:

Frank Wyman

IMAGE SUBMISSION:
For the July meeting, please send any images you wish to share to Nancy Carow at ncarow@mac.com (and facilitator TBA) to help her arrange the presentation.

PLEASE INCLUDE the following information for each image:
Title of the image
file extension (.pdf, .jpg, .png, etc.)

OPTIONAL:
Art media and dimensions
Caption/description of your work.

If you are new to the group, or interested in posting your art or joining our Zoom meetings, please send us a brief description of you—a few sentences—and we will set up a page for you and send out an invitation to you before our meetings. Also if you would like to join the group, please do the same.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT
Edythe-Preston Hardie at ephardie@gmail.com or
Laurel Gollinger at laurel.gollinger@gmail.com.

We are hoping to make this a space to share art and ideas that emerge from our Zoom calls and interactions or simply art that you would like us to see. The goal of our group is to have a place to support one another as contemplative artists.

RESOURCES

IMAGE STORAGE: From Catherine Morgan

I’d like to recommend Artwork Archive, the database I use to store images and details of every painting, plus where it’s been shown, and to whom it’s been sold. It’s Artwork Archive that enables me to make the slide shows i use for my own tests for healing power. 

If you decide to try a 14-day free trial, let me know first so I can ensure that you get 20% off the first year you use it. It will also give me a $20 credit there, but that’s a minor thing. I started with the least expensive plan and now use the most expensive and find it well worth it, even though I use only part of the features available.

Also, if you want to make a slide show for your own website, I’ve tried several ways to do it, and find the Elfsight slider widget by far the simplest and best. I’ll keep adding more of these for my site, for each new slide show I make.

MORE ON ICONOGRAPHY: From Mary Jane Miller (See below for Mary Jane’s book)

Classic Iconography      http://www.sanmiguelicons.com/      
Books for Purchase        Lulu.com
Workshops offered        http://www.sacrediconretreat.com/
Modern Catholic Iconography  https://www.millericons.com/

REGARDING HIGH QUALITY PRINTS: From June G. Paul

I use a place called Picture Salon in Madison WI

You can take or send your art there and they do art captures and also color matching.  You can also upload photos, stop in and they color match to match how it appears on your camera – they can enhance the image if you desire.

They have a wide variety of papers, and use giclee printing so it’s archival, museum, gallery quality.

You have to be patient for the quality capture, color matching and giclee prints – there is a 4-6 week time frame on those.

INSPIRATION:

Visual Commentary on Scripture https://thevcs.org
The Visual Commentary on Scripture is a free, online resource that provides material for teaching, preaching, researching, and reflecting on the Bible, Art, and Theology.

SOME BOOKS FOR INSPIRATION DURING LENT (2025)

• Season For the Spirit by Martin Smith (recommended by Posey Krakowsky)

• Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God by Rainer Maria Rilke,
  translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy (recommended by Mel Ahlborn)

• Seven Sacred Pauses by Macrina Wiederkehr (recommended by Julie Bender)

• Hour by Hour by Alan Jones (recommended by Jan Ramsey)

• The Tears of Things, by Richard Rohr. (recommended by Joy,
   and I think a few others of us are reading it, including Lynn and Jan.)

PAYNE’S GRAY OIL PAINT

There was a recent discussion about the beauty of Paynes Gray. Here is the version Mel is using, and an example of how she is using it. She writes, “Payne’s Gray, a Winton oil paint version, by Winsor & Newton, with a closeup of the color interplay, with cerulean blue + lemon yellow in the background and paynes gray in the leaves.”

BOOKS by Members of the Contemplative Artists’ Guild:

Coloring Book for Women, Religious Art and Iconography.
Many of the 65 illustrations are sacred lines handed down from generation to generation, others are free-form and new in the age of change. Seventy-two contemporary designs and images highlight saintly women who have been in the organized church for centuries. CONTEMPLATIVE ARTISTS and saintly women are honored in this collection of iconography templates, designed as a tool for establishing more female presence in art and religion. Grace comes when we least expect it, so while looking at each line, remember you are part of a long history of female saints and Christian mystics. There is a growing interest in Orthodox iconography around the world, attracting women’s spirituality and methods for meditation. 
 LINK 

Version 1.0.0

Iconography is a Visual Language.
Contemplative artists may find the reference book, A to Z Visual Language, useful for creating new works. We are encouraged to explore the symbolism and meanings in religious art. Ancient art speaks to the spirit; images are not political but experiential. Sacred art invites the soul to see and question a shift in understanding. After reading through the book Iconography as a Visual Language, you will find that the next time you visit a museum, you’ll feel comfortable questioning your thoughts and conclusions while viewing sacred art. You will gain a newfound freedom to imagine who created that image and why. Learning how art serves as a visual language will help inspire those who view your work with wonder and awe.
LINK

Version 1.0.0

Embossing Metal.
This book is geared towards those of you in the contemplative artist community who are interested in creating silver embellishments to add to your work. The first section of the book discusses tools, supplies, and techniques. Tools and metal foil sheets are all you need to create beautiful designs. Each tool has its character and purpose to help you press from the back to the front and flatten raised areas that get distorted. As you learn to refine the edges of your patterns, you will add a few more tools to accommodate increased skill. This book gives you a place to begin and inspires you to go further with practice. The process is simple and only requires investing hours of focused practice. After about ten hours of practice, you will begin to sense and feel the amount of pressure required to make fluid designs and texture. 
LINK

SPIRITUAL CONNECTION IN DAILY LIFE
by Lynn Underwood

This book has open-ended questions that call our attention to the ways we can find spiritual connection in our days in the ordinary. Things like awe, joy, deep inner peace, feeling thankful for blessings. I recommend the audiobook version, as it is revised. The questions work for those from many religions and also for those not comfortable with a religion. A link to the questions and prompts is available on the website. The questions have been tested through research in 40 languages and thousands of studies. The themes embedded in the questions include ‘The Flow of Love’, ‘Connection vs Alienation’ and ‘Saying Yes to Life.’ (lynn designed the cover art) • http://www.lynnunderwood.com/book

MATERIALS

Heavy texture acrylic paint.
Gaffrey Art Material: https://gaffreyart.com

INK PENS FOR INK AND WASH DRAWINGS

A sketch to keep track of tools and inks by Lynn