River of Life and Center- Christ Supreme

These two live paintings were the first works that Alexis Newsom and I collaborated on in Seoul Korea during the L4 Global Congress. Both are 62x64” acrylic on stretch canvas. 2024.

River of Life 62x64” acrylic on canvas by Bryn Gillette and Alexis Newsom

Center- Christ Supreme 62x64” acrylic on canvas by Bryn Gillette and Alexis Newsom

After traveling around the world and emerging into the hubbub of 5000+ participants, 1000 volunteers and staff, from 200+ nations, we were absolutely spinning as we rolled out large canvases and tried to find the necessary tools to build quick stretchers to work large. The auditorium was absolutely massive, with the largest TV display (nearly 300ft in curved width behind the stage), and a sea of brothers and sisters standing around us. Strangely enough, when the work and worship began, it was as natural and normal as painting anywhere else… and Lexi and I quickly lost ourself in the work. River of Life was inspired by the very first images of the conference of water flowing across the entire massive screen… and the streams and rivers of all these tongues and tribes and nations flowing into one place to worship Christ… the golden stream uniting the figures of the imagery. Lexi’s large format style and expressive colors and marks shaped the mood while the figures of my historic touch began to march through the painting rising to the top right. Center- Christ Supreme unfolded to a backdrop of amazing teaching about Christ reconciling the division and tension and injustices of our human condition. I thought of T.S. Eliots quote that Christ is the “Stillpoint” of the spinning universe… or as in Colossians 1, that Christ is supreme over all creation. Christ existed before anything else, and God made everything through him and for him… and he holds all of creation together. May we hold Christ as supreme!

The Spirit of Collaboration

The Spirit of Collaboration Painted live at the L4 Congress in Seoul, Korea 2024. 72x72” acrylic on unprimed canvas by Bryn Gillette and Alexis Newsom.

In many ways, the real fruit and discovery of the L4 conference for me was the delight of collaboration with my new and dear sister in Christ, Alexis Newsom (“sister Lexi”). As we spoke and debriefed daily about what it was the Spirit was doing in and through our connection, we returned to the new equation that the result of our collaboration was greater than the sum of our parts… or as I would say: “1+1=7!” As we delved deeper into why we, who were COMPLETELY different styles of artists, ages, genders, etc., still found it so simple and natural to work together, it came down to the POSTURE and Spirit of collaboration. As artists in tune with the Lord, we had already mastered our crafts and learned to posture ourselves in humble attentiveness to Jesus in real time while we work… “Father, what are you doing right now?” While both of us took up that same posture individually, we could look over at the other with incredible trust and humility and offer that same attentive responsiveness to one another. I trusted Lexi as co-master, and she trusted me. We would hand off our brushes, painting directly over one another’s work at times, inspired by one another and continually discovering “MORE” unfolding on the canvases as we worked side by side… laughing and dancing along beside one another in the joy and discover of the work. Lexi noted that a major part of the success of the work was our willingness to “surrender control” and the ego that so often permeates the process, ownership, and pride of making. It was truly a creation born of our gifts converging in the collaboration… and something new emerged. 1+1=7.

The world’s population growth is currently accelerating faster than the spread of the gospel, and as global evangelical leaders consider the pressing needs of our time, it is clear that new strategies, new methods, and new technologies will be needed to grow in pace with the needs of our world.  Humanly speaking, this is impossible, but the Church is not empowered by human wisdom or strength, but by the Spirit of God.  New wineskins are needed to hold the “new wine” of God’s assignments for his people in the new millennium, and collaboration is a key element to what is being revealed.  Collaboration requires the individual members of the Body of Christ to surrender their own control, personal agendas, and ego, and to look to the “head” of the body: Christ.  Rightly aligned with Jesus, we can then approach one another in a posture of humble attentiveness, each doing our unique part, mutually honoring what the other brings, believing that in Kingdom collaborative math: 1+1=7.  Where is the Lord stirring your heart to the white fields of The Harvest, and how might you collaborate with your brothers and sisters to hold the new wine and fulfill the new assignments of spreading the gospel in this place and time?

From the Depths- The Making of Black Britain

From the Depths, a collaboration with the Making of Black Britain. Original 80x32” acrylic and pen on wood panel. 2021 by Bryn Gillette

Dr. Diane Louis Jordan, British television and radio host with a Jamaican heritage, partnered with Kem Anyanwu-Greene to record the stories and create a database called The Making of Black Britain or MOBB. This captured the experience of British citizens through the wake of the last 75 years of the Nationality Act; the law that gave all people in the British commonwealth full citizenship following WWII. The influx of immigrants from the Caribbean, Africa, the Pacific, etc. flooded the post war population still reeling from the loss of so many soldiers and civilians and entirely reshaped the identity of the small British Isles redefining what it meant to be “British”… especially “Black British”.

Throughout the work are the nautical algorithms designed for deep sea search and rescue. The metaphor was so appropriate for the work of MOBB that was plumbing the depths of human and social experience to discover the meanings of identity, collective memory, value, and nationality.

During the painting of the work, an African-British scholar and author won the Nobel peace prize for his work cataloging the experience of the Black British… a phenomenal and unlooked for endorsement to the unfolding. [From the Noble Museum] Abdulrazak Gurnah was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”.

As an American with a strong Celtic heritage (I mean… my Welsh name is Bryn and my mother’s name is Bronwen… you don’t get more Welsh than that!), I felt an immediate “homecoming” as I painstakingly began this work by painting the specific shorelines of the British Isles, and especially as I flew over my heritage and homeland of Wales. As a teacher of Art History and the benefactor of the Abolitionist movement that began in Britain and spread to the United States decades later, I also embedded the work of William Turner’s Slave Ship as a memorial to the lives lost “to the depths” of injustice, evil, and the Leviathan who is incarnated and depicted swirling in his wrath and mass through the waters. Turner’s painting, a vignette hidden in the sale of the ship, showcased the controversial moment a slave ship owner threw his chained slave “shipment” overboard into shark invested water in fear of an oncoming storm in order to collect the insurance for their loss. The appalling episode, once brought to the public attention and amplified in part by Turner’s painting, helped turn public opinion and cause the downfall of the slave industry. What a powerful display of the power of art to impact and shape culture and identity.

A few years later, we shipped the work to London and gathered at King’s Cross station for the red carpet unveiling of the work. I’m so please that Dr. Diane Louis Jordan also agreed to come to the celebration and launch of my art tour “Kingdom Collaboration” and share her unique perspective on the role of the arts in shaping culture and bringing the gospel outside the walls of the church to impact all the spheres of society.

Other than scripture, my favorite regular reading material is National Geographic… and while the work was on display for the grand unveiling on the red carpet, the front cover of Nat. Geo was the African American story of “Into the Depths”… divers exploring sunken slave ship ruins and exhuming the past, heritage, and history of those enslaved and transporting; reshaping the cultural identity of African, Britain, the U.S., the Caribbean, and the entire world. On the night of the event, I painted live onto the work and added the vignette of the cover diver along with participants who came to celebrate that night and add their stories into the MOBB collection.

Here is my mentor Dr. Rev. Leighton Ford holding the work and praying a blessing over me and the experience of my upcoming trip to London.

The Persecuted Church- Live L4 Collaboration

Persecution, painted live at the L4 Congress in Seoul, Korea 2024 during a service for Christian Martyrs. 63x80” acrylic on canvas. A collaboration by Bryn Gillette and Alexis Newsom.

Lexi and I had attended a special dinner the night of this service and didn’t think we would have time to paint. Despite having set up and had a painting ready, we arrived late to the session not knowing what to expect, and were instantly swept up in the weight and emotion of the scale of contemporary persecution of Christians as told that night by survivors. We ended up painting the image in little over half an hour, in only crimson “blood” red, allowing the paint to drip “up” from below by flipping the canvas in the beginning. This felt like the blood of the martyrs rising up and calling out “How Long Oh Lord.” We scratch and splattered, rubbed our hands through the bloody mess, and openly cried as we felt the impact of so closely identifying with those killed for the gospel of Jesus. When we’d finished… I sat on the floor and wept, unable to stand up, and welcoming the full emotion of the cost of the lives of my brothers and sisters to see the good news of Jesus Kingdom advance to wash over me. How often do we walk through our day oblivious to the cries of our spiritual siblings who are suffering? It felt good and right to grieve deeply… and out from the bloody mess of this costly sacrifice emerges the victorious and beautiful Bride of Christ; triumphant, beautiful, and washed clean.

The Harvest Cycle- Live Collaboration at L4 Seoul Korea 2024

The Harvest Cycle, painted live at the L4 Congress in Seoul, Korea 2024. 63x128” acrylic on canvas by Bryn Gillette and Alexis Newsom

This was the largest of canvases that Lexi and I stretched and painted on during the L4 congress. This was intended to the be foreshadowing and DNA of the 50th anniversary painting “prayer” over the assembled 6000 believers from 200+ nations before the unveiling of The Harvest painting on the last day. While Lexi and I knew just how much overlap there was in imagery, no one else did! We let the blue drip from above as “Let your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We painted the harvest (as the harvest of souls) in gold to represent the value as well as the Lausanne Movement’s

The “Plower” image is an iconic symbol in my life. My mentor Bruce Herman first compared my role as a painter to the work of a plower when I was in my undergraduate study of fine art at Gordon College, and it has visually haunted my journey since. I painted the plower in 2015 on Easter only to have it be the day my nearly 3 year old daughter Kea accepted Christ… it is “her” painting now (Above), and the symbol is imbued with meaning of those who receive the “seed of the gospel”… and a metaphor of me. While I was added into the work as the Plower, Lexi posed and was added into the work as the Sower… followed by “The Harvester” whom will be central in the 50th anniversary work- inspire by Winslow Homer’s Veteran in a New Field.

The parallels with The Harvest- Lausanne Movement 50th anniversary are unmistakable. Click here to see the full blog post on the 50th.

Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration- Lessons and Carols 2024

Live painting collaboration during “Lessons and Carols” by Mr. Gillette, Kea Gillette, Katie Joe, and Daily Schenck.  Latex paint on birch panel.  4ft x 8ft.  December 4, 2024.

During the hour-long performance of Lessons and Carols at Providence Baptist Church, Mr. Gillette (Brother Bryn), and three rotating singing performers: Kea, Dailey, and Katie, painted this large scale visualization of the Christmas story.  Katie and Brother Bryn began on the left side with “Creation” and moved in chronological order from left to right while the CCS administration read parallel biblical passages and the Middle and Upper school choirs beautifully sang out the story.  This 3D gospel of Word, Song, and Image continued through “The Fall” of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden as humanity descended into the darkness of sin.  In the depths of time, at the center of the Metanarrative, Kea joined the group to paint the Christmas Star illuminating the way for wise men and shepherds to Christ’s birth.  Rising over “Golgotha- the Hill of the Skull”, we see the foretold reason for Christ’s birth: to be the sacrificial Savior of the world.  Dailey rotated in at the end and finished the painting and the story in the upper right with the two trees on life on either side of the river flowing from the heavenly Jerusalem, when Christ’s second coming will bring the restoration of all things.

Lausanne 50th Anniversary Painting "The Harvest" at the L4 Congress in Seoul

On stage the final day for after the big reveal with all four pillars regathered from around the world and the "fifth" pillar (we affectionally call it) of the Harvest beside it.

Alexis and I sharing the moment of the unveiling...

At long last, Alexis Newsom and I joined the Lausanne president Dr Michael Oh on stage at the very end of the L4 Congress to reveal the 50th anniversary painting “The Harvest” as a capstone moment to prophetically usher us in to the next season of the gospel going into all the world. Our presentation followed Rick Warren’s admonition and he kindly encouraged us back stage, and the unveiling was followed by the Getty family leading worship and a communion service lead by church leaders from the historic enemy countries of Japan and Korea.

Rick Warren gave an amazing exhortation just before Dr. Michael Oh gave the closing message and lead into the unveiling of the painting.

The Getty family leading worship

VR live artist and dear brother in Christ Phil Bezalel lead a visualization of God's presence redeeming the whole earth.

Upper lefthand corner detail of "Pillar 4" from the Lausanne Movement.  I had finished painting this and unveiled it back in 2019 at the last large gathering of Lausanne in Manila during the Global Workplace Forum.  What an amazing "God Wink" to have the LAST element I paint in the previous painting be the prophetic exclamation point showcasing God's anointing at the unveiling of the 50th!

It was beautiful! Michael ended his address with a poem about beauty and honeybees as the visual metaphor, and I had chills up my spine as he introduced the two of us, we dramatically unveiled the painting, and immediately went off script as I began to laugh, exclaiming that in the Lausanne pillar painting four, the very last one we finished five years ago, the final element I added to the work was a honeybee pollinating The essence of the Kingdom of God into every sphere of society.

This painting is about time, from creation to the wedding feast… and we were literally IN the moment of the painting as the final imagery embedded in the harvest wheat was of Billy Graham, John Stott, and the Songdo convention center where we were physically standing in time for the unveiling- within the entire sweep of the eternal biblical Metanarrative.

5400+ participants from 200+ countries gathered in one room as the Global Bride made visible!

The live, collaborative artwork that Alexis and I had completed over the course of the week was spread out all across the front of the stage, the four pillars of the Lausanne movement paintings were gathered back from the four corners of the earth, and put on display together, now joined with this “fifth pillar“ of the harvest. May the Lord catalyze this movement of Kingdom hearted believers, and in great collaboration and coordination send us into our divided and digitalized world to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone: the whole church bringing the whole gospel to the whole world!

The view from back (under) the stage just before we walked up for the unveiling...

Since I first heard of this 50th anniversary event of the Lausanne Movement, I’ve deeply desired to produce an image to capture the scope of time and the scale of “the whole church bringing the whole gospel to the whole world” (and perhaps I’d add… “To the whole timeline of history: past, present, and future”). I remember being on a drive with Leighton Ford to an art opening (I was his chauffeur that night) and as I shared about the meeting in Seoul, Korea, my heart was on fire with a vision to go and to somehow prophetically visualize the moment in time amidst the sweep of all that has unfolded in the global church.

The evening that the families of Lexie and I first met over dinner, we prayerfully imagined working TOGETHER on a 50th anniversary work, and I sent her home that night with the canvas I’d built for the work so she could lay the base layers in her expressive, prophetic, and abstract style. The work is symbolically the same size as the other Four Pillar Paintings of the Lausanne Movement, yet now is turned on its side to show the sweep of time, or the table for the wedding feast… or some other unforeseen metaphor of “same but different”.

How do you paint time? Is it possible for an artist to capture a vision of this moment in the full time and space continuum of humanity’s meta-narrative? My desire in this anniversary painting has been to honor the 10 years I’ve served the Lausanne Movement as an artist, the 50 years since it was founded, the 500 years since the Reformation, the 2000 years since the cross, the 4000 years since our father Abraham… and the infinite before and after: the entire Harvest that will be gathered at the end of time! Sound a little overwhelming? It was.

The Harvester is the main figure, where the Fisherman (Pillar 1), the Bride of Christ (Pillar 2 & 4 and now here again), the Good Shepherd (Pillar 3), and the King (Pillar 4) comprise the main imagery of the four pillars of Lausanne.  

Winslow Homer's "The Veteran in a New Field".  One of my artistic heroes and major inspirations... and I am now tributing and appropriating his visually legacy to tell the story of time as an artist who has inherited his visual vocabulary.

Until the last 500 years, most believers came to understand their faith through BOTH the written/spoken word as well as artwork. It was the layman’s Bible. In this tribute painting of time, I chose to tell the story through Art Historical reference, intentionally recreating the biblical narrative through artwork from as many diverse regions and artistic traditions throughout the world as possible, as it is one of humankind’s deepest and most universal impulses to express their divine connection visually. Artwork has ever been the meeting place of history, spirituality, emotions, politics, imagination, and power, and what better way for me, an artistic heir of every work that has come before me, to tell the story of God’s time through the language of art history.

The "harvest" is full of visual art historical reference from the sweep of Biblical history to the world cultures of many heritages and traditions (representing ALL of the global artistic languages).  In addition to Winslow Homers "The Veteran in a New Field" done following the Civil War in 1865, from left to right: Michelangelo's Adam and Eve (1508-12) symbolizing earliest know human history , The Cave of Lascaux 16,000-14,000 BCE, Running Horned Woman- Algeria 6000-4000 BCE, Russian Icon of Abraham Sacrificing Isaac - historically near 2000 BCE, stone tablets of Moses representing circa 1500 BCE, Olmec Stone head of Middle America circa 1000 BCE, Bernini's "David" representing circa 1000 BCE, Terra Cotta Warriors- China 210 BCE, Egyptian Coptic Cross representing the life, death, and resurrection of Christ circa 27CE (best known adjusted time from modern research), Buddha from India carved early centuries CE, Emperor and Empress Justinian and Theodora of the Byzantine Empire 500CE, Bayeux Tapestry circa 1066 CE Normandy/ England , Easter Island Moai circa 1200 CE, Martin Luther representing 1512 CE, Billy Graham and John Stott in 1974 with the Lausanne Covenant, Songdo Convention Center, Incheon Korea 2024, and the wedding feast of our Lord in the future Kingdom Come!

Michelangelo’s Adam & Eve on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Fresco. 1508-1512

A famous Russian Icon of Abraham Sacrificing Isaac to hold the 2000 B.C.E. placeholder in the Biblical Metanarrative.

The stone tablets of Moses’ approximate 1500 BCE time holder at the top right between Abraham and David.

A photo from my trip this June to see Bernini's "David" in the Borghese Gallery in Italy.  A representation of this images is just to the left of the harvester as the 1000 B.C.E. placeholder of the Biblical Narrative of time.

Coptic (Egypt) Triptych with Crucifixion. 13th-15th century.

Mosaics of Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora 6th century at San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy. Placeholder for the 500ce Era of biblical history.

For the 1000 ce era placeholder, I included vignettes from the Bayeux Tapestry (William the Conqueror from Normandy) and a Moai from Easter Island… both created at the turn of the millennium.

Ferdinand Pauwels. Luther nails his 95 Thesis to the Door. 1872. Oil on canvas. This represents the 500 year era of the 1500… Oct. 31, 1517.

John Stott and Billy Graham signing the Lausanne Covenant in 1974 and the Songdo Convention Center in S. Korea over their shoulder where we were actually meeting during the unveiling 50 years later to the day in 2024.

Many other artistic expressions are seen in the fallen wheat where the harvester has already passed or up in the wheat above. This was not a comment on “fallen” cultures vs. “holy” cultures… as ALL will ultimately be harvested. In this densely packed work, I wanted to reference as many cultural regions and artistic heritages around the world.

The Bride of Christ is radiant in her glory, looking with joy upon a laughing Jesus wreathed in the glory of galleries.  Her dress is made of the white of the harvest floating up among her... or is it the outnumbered stars in the sky of Father Abraham's promised future offspring?  This is the fulfillment and culmination of all things that followers of Christ are looking ahead and setting our course to follow.  It is our guiding Morning Star. 

Matthew 9: 37 ‘Then he [Jesus] said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”’ ESV

L4 Lausanne Leadership Planning Gathering NYC 2022

In June of 2022, the leadership of the Lausanne Movement met in New York City to prayerfully prepare for the 2024 fourth global congress in Seoul, Korea.

In addition to bringing a new alternate and opposing iteration of the Pillar 2 painting in the form of “The Bride To Be”, I also had the wonderful opportunity to join the leadership again on stage painting live and visually capturing the prayerful digestion of the book of Nehemiah.

Nehemiah’s Legacy. Painted live at the 2022 L4 NYC Leadership Gathering. 30x24”acrylic on canvas.

During the morning scripture readings each day of the congress, the L4 leaders read through the entire book of Nehemiah. I was on stage as the “Visual Scribe” catching imagery and the Spirit’s leading as I listened along. This work is layered in imagery from several morning sessions, overlapping stories from the new testament miracles of Jesus with the rebuilding from the ruins in Nehemiah. Braided together through the center is a cross… as all of these woven threads of time and history are wrapped together in Christ’s redemptive story (and many other appropriate interpretations could be given as well). The Korean hand gesture for “Together” with the thumb and forefinger is also prominently displayed at the top.

Unless A Grain of Wheat Falls into the Earth and Dies… Painted live at the 2022 L4 NYC Leadership Gathering. 30x24”acrylic on canvas

John 12:24 “24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” ESV.

In the fourth pillar painting of Lausanne, the hexagonal framework became a metaphor of “Kingdom DNA” being spread (like a seed) throughout the world. The shape of a sphere or a globe can be seen taking shape amidst the wheat. This also relates to Jesus’ statement that the fields of humanity are white for the harvest, and to pray for workers to go out into the fields to gather people into the Kingdom of God. Christ is the ultimate seed to die and bring new life… as in Colossians 1 where it states “Christ is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead, so he is first in everything,” yet each believer is called to “die” to self and become a new creation. As the L4 leaders prepared for the Seoul Gathering in Korea in Sep. 2024, there was a collective posture in the room of conscious self-sacrifice and setting ourselves apart for the work required to bring the 4th Global Congress in Korea into existence.

Sarah Plummer reading scripture while the work in process was unfolding.

Amidst seeing familiar friends of Byron Spradling (second from left) and Billie Coppege (far right), I was introduce to Ron Anderson (far left) in the unexpected dilemma of a cancelled flight, a shared rented car, an overnight in PA with my parents, and a long drive back to VA and NC together the following day. In the midst of that adventure, Ron shared his desire to bless his father’s testimony book with a commissioned cover.

Lausanne Movement's Global Workplace Forum Manila, Philippines June 2019

David Miller spoke during the opening session of the Global Workplace Forum, and the fourth and final pillar was dramatically “unveiled” on stage during that evening. The four originals were then gathered in the atrium where the participants could interact closely with them.

All four sibling paintings met for the first time June 25, 2019 in Manila, Philippines during the unveiling of Pillar 4 at the Lausanne Movement’s “Global Workplace Forum”. There were SO many miraculous moments standing in front of the work… meeting sibling I had painted for years but had never met. It literally felt as though I had stepped INTO my paintings, meeting the people from all over the world that I had spiritually and artistically journeyed beside for the past four years. Equally amazing was the portal that these four paintings opened for those who saw them… an open heaven that allowed them to look through the surface details of what they individually are called to do in Kingdom service to see the grand metanarrative, the universal sweep of calling and scope of God empowering “the whole church to bring the whole gospel to the whole world”. We had many tearful and prayerful moments in front of the paintings, and I rarely made into into the main sessions on time or at all as I would be swept up in meeting my siblings from around the world.

Here I am with my artistic ministry partner and dear friend Melanie Spinks who shared the adventure of our travel to Manila via Tokyo, Japan. In addition to the four pillars paintings that were gathered for the first time during the conference, throughout the gathering, I was painting live on stage during portions of the sessions as a “visual scribe” where I was capturing the spirit and revelation of the plenary sessions in real time (the paintings displayed behind me in the above photo). These images were gifted to our host church in Manila.

One of my very favorite stories from the Global Workplace Forum was meeting Billy Coppedge, a missionary with his wonderful family to Uganda who had JUST finished his doctorate at St. Andrews in Scotland and was returning to Africa with his wife and five kids. Amidst our hour + conversation, I felt compelled to offer to paint a blessing over his ministry, and then realized he was living less than an hour from my uncle in GA whom I was planning to visit just weeks after returning from Manila. Two weeks later I was in Billy’s living room, meeting his family, and standing at the altar at the family camp where 20 years TO THE DAY he had surrendered his life fully to the Lord. I began a painting on that very pew, the same place he had proposed to his wife, the same place he had knelt in thanks when he received confirmation of his completed doctorate, to begin the painting.

The image is also based around the Nitrogen atom of Pillar 4 of the Lausanne series. With Christ at the center, Billy and Jo make up the inner ring of electrons and the five children make up the outer ring. With the “third culture” experience of their American / Scottish/ Ugandan children, I set up the central cross to be split between a favorite view of St. Andrews Scotland if the image is turned 90 degrees to the right and an image of the Ugandan landscape if turned 90 degrees to the left.

Lausanne Movement Pillar 4- Kingdom Impact in Every Sphere of Society

"Lausanne Pillar 4- Kingdom Impact in Every Sphere of Society”. 2019. 32x20”. Acrylic on birch panel.

As the fourth and final painting in the Lausanne Movement Pillar series, this piece seeks to sum up the other three works as well as paint a global vision of God’s Kingdom permeating the seven cultural spheres.  Remixed again here are the fisherman from pillar 1: “The Gospel for every person”, the Bride from pillar 2: “An evangelical church for every community”, and the Good Shepherd from pillar 3: “Christ-like leaders for every church”.  Christ is now crowned as the glorious and triumphant King, but as his upside-down Kingdom subtly infuses each sphere, it is not done as the leaders of this world who lord it over their subjects, but in selfless servanthood (rather than sit on the throne, He kneels to wash His Bride’s feet.

Each of the seven spheres is set on a different continent of the world and is shown crumbling in the futility of man’s institutions, while Christ-like servants carry the DNA of the Kingdom in the form of equilateral (trinity) triangles joining into a new infrastructure of honeycomb hexagons.  This stems from the crystal structure of Nitrogen, the atomic element with 7 electrons, 7 protons, and 7 neutrons (777) figured here as the very fabric of God’s Kingdom from a universal scale to the very smallest subatomic particle of God’s creation. The seven spheres are set in the same format as Nitrogen.

1. Family [Michelangelo’s painting, “The Creation of Adam” with the African pyramids] 

2. Religion [The remixed Bride set in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil]

3. Business [Dubai skyline, United Emirates]

4. Government [China’s Forbidden City & the Tower of Babel]

5. Education [Cambridge University, UK] - alma mater of John Stott featured just below.

6. Art [Sydney Opera House, Australia]

7. Media [Hollywood, CA, U.S.A.]

As I did my research, I learned that Nitrogen’s 7 electrons have two layers orbiting its center: 2 in the inner ring, and 5 in the outer ring. Even as I began to ask myself, “what two spheres of the seven would be closest to God’s heart” I already knew the answer: “The Church” (God’s Family), and “Family”, the echoing social fabric in which God designed our existence. The Bride’s halo becomes the first electron as I oriented the painted to have those two images and electrons closest to Christ.

One of the mentoring voices in my life has been that of Mako Fujimura. At one point when we were discussing my artwork and my calling, Mako said to me, “Bryn, the smaller you paint, the bigger you’ll see.” For years I’d literally painted small paintings in response to this word, often no larger than 1” squares of tiny images. Here I was, years later, painting an image inspired by the atomically minuscule Nitrogen, and I was suddenly seeing Kingdom revelations of the very nature and structure of divine realities. Thank you Mako!

Lausanne Movement Pillar 3: Christ-Like Leaders for Every Church and Sector

The third pillar of the Lausanne Movement is embodied in the "Good Shepherd" sitting among his sheep.  Vignettes surround the central figure suggesting the varied roles these shepherds play throughout the globe, from an iconic image of founder Billy Graham preaching, to young biblical David with his sheep, to a female chaplain in the army and asian pastor serving communion.  While wolves hover in the background and allusions to darkness and danger surround the flock, the Good Shepherd sits at the center of his charges with calm strength as a spiritual refuge and friend. May our church leaders throughout the world derive their compassion, wisdom, leadership, and the sacrificial love to lay down their lives for their sheep and wash the feet of their disciples from the true source of these qualities, Jesus Christ.  

Charlotte Christian Student Andrew Knotts and I collaborating on the opening layers of the painting in my classroom studio together.

I wanted to embed the very DNA of what it means to shepherd, impart, and empower into the painting itself, so I invited one of my students, Andrew Knotts, to join me in the early stages of this painting.  He and I worked together to pray over the design and sketch the imagery, we built the canvas together, and painted the abstract foundational layers side by side. Andrew painted several of the wolves that can still be seen in the image, and am so grateful for Andrew's generous collaboration.  

Leighton Ford got the very first print of the 24 print limited first edition of this series. Billy Graham had just past away, and is featured in the upper left hand corner, and I was so honored to be able to share with his family my own small piece of tribute to the Graham legacy.

Lausanne Movement Pillar 2: An evangelical church for every community

The New Testament envisions the fully realized global Church as a spotless Bride prepared for her returning Bridegroom, Christ.  Standing on the New Jerusalem, this Bride is subtly depicted with her planetary scale feet standing on the literal holy land, holding the flame of the gospel in her hand, while this orange fiery light is carried by diverse believers into every corner of the world.  As God’s Word does not return void, the Bride’s gown subsumes untold sparkling blue and white figures of every tribe, tongue, and nation streaming in to comprise her fully realized expression. May our passion to see the “whole Church” fully healed, unified, purified, and restored to her identity as the spotless Bride of Christ compel us to carry the whole gospel to the whole world with humility tempered zeal.

Here is Pillar 2 being handed off at the 2019 to go from the Philippines to its new host in Africa.

More than any other of the four pillars of Lausanne, the central image of the Bride of Christ has haunted dozens of my paintings for the last decade. It began just before I was introduced to the movement when I was finishing my Haiti “Beyond The Ruins” Series of 12 images as a prophetic prayer over the nation of Haiti. One of the culminating images from that set was the embodied Bride, both as the nation of Haiti personified, but also as a glimpse of the global Church unified. She was the fulfillment summation of the entire series with fractals of equilateral triangles containing repeated glimpses of the other 11 paintings in the series.

It was actually in painting that work that my multi-year assignment to paint for an entire nation (who would have the audacity to do something that large?!?), that had always felt outlandishly massive in scope in my heart… suddenly felt too small. I didn’t want to just paint for Haiti any longer, I wanted to paint for the world. I didn’t want to paint just for the living saints… but for those who had already lived and died, and for the countless generations still to be born. The Bride of Christ is ALL of us, together across time and space, unified and presented to our groom Jesus. “I want to paint THAT image!” was the compulsion as I finished my Haiti series, and low and behold, within a year or so, the Lausanne Movement (that I didn’t even know existed) reached out and asked me to paint these images. Sometimes God gives us the oak tree in the form of an acorn.

“Lausanne Pillar 2 Prequel: The Bride To Be”. 32x20” acrylic and gold on birch panel. Burned. June 2022.

In the summer of 2022, the leaders of the Lausanne Movement from each region on earth and representing each interest group assembled in NYC to begin planning for the Lausanne 4 global conference in Seoul, Korea 2024. I attended and painted live throughout the sessions of that gathering, and arrived having just painted a broken version of the Bride, and then physically and metaphorically “burned” the surface around the edges as well as entirely through the birch surface in several places. Standing in the watery ruins of her filth and unfaithfulness, the German 23 karat flakes of her golden beauty were surrounded by her charred reality.

In 2020 I was commissioned to repaint the Lausanne Pillar 2 for a ministry that was an outreach to the female muslim community. What began as a “simple repainting”, soon morphed into a much more involved project, and was now more than twice as large as the original 32x20” at 48x30”. This same “Bride” now took on the visual language of the near east and the visual tradition of tessellations: the mathematical, infinitely repeated patterns that are intended to convey divine beauty and eternal order. Click here to read the full article about “Beloved”.

Lausanne Movement Pillar 1: The Gospel for Every Person

Lausanne Pillar 1: The Gospel for Every Person. 32x20”. Acrylic on birch panel. 2016

To highlight some ingredients that were placed in the painting: a central fisherman is casting his net over the entire world (each continent outline in gold), seen from an unexpected, sideways vantage, while a central cross comprised by the equator and international dateline anchor the work.  The net sparkles with the burst of blue and white light scattered across the globe as seen from satellite photography of current population densities and prophetically declares our prayer that God’s love would enfold every people group on earth and flood the remaining darkness with the light of the gospel.

Here you can see more clearly the underlying global map with the continents oriented in a more familiar layout. The decision to turn the world on its side was a prophetic symbol of the way the gospel turns this world on its head, and the qualities of our “upside-down Kingdom” (service, humility, sacrificial love, generosity, forgiveness) are so often running at odds with the priorities of our world.

Here is the Lausanne Movement’s president Dr. Michael Oh presenting the Pillar 1 painting for the first time at the Younger Leaders Gathering in Jakarta, Indonesia August 2016.

Near each continent on the globe is a depiction of the indigenous people in their cultural attire.

At first I’d painstakingly painted the entire globe noting every curve and edge along the shorelines, and intentionally avoiding the manmade borders and distinctions history has imposed on the land. After hours and hours of prayerfully considering the vastness of this world and just how little I really knew of all these places, I felt the Lord lead me to paint it all AGAIN, but this time as seen from satellite photos at night, the blue/white lights illuminating our planet showing clearly where the greatest gatherings of population and our globally urbanizing and shifting world. I found myself again praying over cities, lights, the hubs of humanity across our planet, and only after completing these two passes over the entire painting did I begin adding my originally intended figurative elements. I didn’t realize it at the time, but God was stretching ME, not the work, so that I could more deeply appreciate and stand in awe of the scope of what it meant that the gospel is for EVERY PERSON on our planet. This vessel had to be broken and remade in order to hold the weight of the assignment to paint pillar 1!

Lausanne Movement 40th Anniversary 2014 "Sunflowers"

The Lausanne Movement’s 40th Anniversary

“Lausanne Movement 40th Anniversary - Sunflowers”. 2014. Oil and gold leaf on wooden panel. Approximately 30x40”

I was given the amazing opportunity to paint an image for the 40th anniversary of the Lausanne Movement, founded by Billy Graham and John Stott in 1974 in Lausanne, Switzerland. With all of the living former presidents assembled, current president Dr. Michael Oh shared a powerful homily from Psalm 123 about keeping sensitive to the Lord’s leading. Like heliotropic sunflowers that turn their heads throughout the day to track the sun’s progression through the sky, so should we keep looking at the “Son” for our life and direction. I had the honor to present the work and share my heart in making it, and was led to share that I had found that only young sunflowers turn their heads with the sun while the older flowers get “stiff necked” and face east instead to maximize the light. I admonished the Movement to retain a posture of childlike faith, ready to embrace the meta-modern era of global history, and to stay docile and sensitive to the Lord’s realtime leading. Little did I know that my meeting that night with Leighton Ford would have a significant impact in my life. I knew him only as the man who told me to say hello to my pastor Rev. Dr. Clive Calver whose word to Leighton years previously from Isaiah about the Lord doing a new thing had changed him. I didn’t know at the time that this was the lifetime honorary chair of the Lausanne Movement, that this was Billy Graham’s brother-in-law, and that two years later I would move onto the same street in Charlotte, NC where Leighton was taking painting lessons (for 10+ years), or that his mentorship and support would significantly shape the coming season of my life.

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Psalm 123 - A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem. NLT

1 I lift my eyes to you,
    O God, enthroned in heaven.
2 We keep looking to the Lord our God for his mercy,
    just as servants keep their eyes on their master,
    as a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal.
3 Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy,
    for we have had our fill of contempt.
4 We have had more than our fill of the scoffing of the proud
    and the contempt of the arrogant.

Here are four of the presidents of Lausanne at Eastern college during the unveiling of “Sunflowers” (watching from the left) retelling the story of the Movement. This was my first time sitting at a table with the Global bride from every region of the world represented. It was a homecoming; these are my people!

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Christmas Studio Sale

Hello friends and faithful patrons, I am announcing my annual studio sale of original works to make gifts available for the holidays and to make space for my next year’s projects. I have a series of paintings that have either recently come down from display (most were painted live at Threshold Church) or are coming out of storage.

Please reach out to me directly if you are interested in a work via my text at 203-240-8392 (and send your name in case you are not in my contacts so I know it’s not spam).

All of the works display their base prices. NC sales will have an added 7.25% sales tax. My preference is to arrange pick up at my studio for the works, but if you require shipping, we can arrange the process and cost when we connect.

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“Anointed for Burial”. 32x20”. Acrylic and 23kt. gold on artist-built custom birch panel. Painted live Nov. 26, 2023 at Threshold Church with Pastor Gabe Swing. $500

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“Walking Passed” 20x32. Acrylic on artist-built custom birch panel. Painted live at Threshold Nov. 11, 2023. $500.

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Custom artist-built framed series of the Lausanne Movements Four Pillars. The prints are each 20x13” signed, limited edition giclee images, with the mat and frame exterior totaling approximately 30x23”. Sold only together as a series of all four: $1000. If you are interested in an individual work- I will custom frame another at your request for $300.

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Easter Series: “Palm Sunday” / “Golgotha” / “Resurrection”. Each are 20x16” Acrylic on Canvas. Painted live at Threshold during Holy Week 2023. Each are $300 or the entire set for $800.

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TRISTAN & ADDISON SHEA'S LIVE WEDDING PAINTING

On Saturday Nov. 11, 2023, I captured the wedding of Tristan & Addison Shea in a live painting. In this video, I offer my blessing to them, explaining how I saw God’s presence in the way the cross that stood over and between them was illuminated by the light in the fall foliage.

Mark & Jill Boyce Commission

This work is based on the “Oaks of Righteousness” in Isaiah 61, and the two Trees of Life in Revelation 22. The trees of life, with leaves for the healing of the nations are on BOTH sides of the River of Life- proceeded from God’s throne. This commission by Mark and Jill Boyce was a visualized prayer over their family, representing the location of their mountain house at Lake James, NC, the eternal night sky as seen in the photography of the new James Webb Telescope, and the expansive root system of oak trees sharing life and support as a prophetic metaphor for their journey. The night sky view from their property is incredible and helped inspire the infinite perspective of the image. The actual Linville Gorge is featured in the background which can be seen from Lake James and my family hiked together while researching the project. The roots of an Oak tree (as I learned from Mark) don’t grow down deeply, but expand up to twice the distance of the trees’ canopy, and transfer nutrients and support to one another. The two trees, lit from within by the cool and warm acorn shaped lanterns (a reference to Tolkien’s Silmarillion) are tethered together under the river by their roots… weathering the storms of life together. May we all find ourselves planted like mighty oaks of righteousness, rebuilding the ancient ruins, under the infinite and expansive Kingdom story sweeping over us!

St. Isidore

Museum Quality Giclee Prints of this image in various sizes are available on the store page.

On March 24, 2022 Julie Silander of the Charlotte Institute of Faith & Work invited me to paint live during the “Work and Worship” gathering at New City Church. Julie invited Matt Kaemingk of Fuller Seminary who spoke of his book by the same title. My 2012 painting the “Plower” was displayed as an initial seed of visual inspiration, and while Matt and I sat to talk and pray before the event began, he asked me, “Have you heard of St. Isidore?” I hadn’t, and this led to a short conversation/ revelation of the classic saint fabled to plow his field 3x faster than anyone else due to angelic help. Matt and I laughed together as we looked up images of the saint that depicted him praying quietly beside his field while the angel did the work. Instead, we both imagined a reality where St. Isidore himself would be plowing while the angel amplified his offering of labor.

By the end of the first worship set, St. Isidore and the angel were already in my painting, with the angel at his back like wind in his sail. By the end of the evening’s live event, the table holding humanity’s various “offerings” of work as worship was included, along with the gears at the bottom of the painting where I intended to paint yellow flowers symbolizing the blending of the human and the divine.

I then took the work back to the studio to add the five specific various expressions of worship Matt Kaemingk described as central to our work as worship. I added each as a roundel over the altar and used details from classic paintings to express the theme:

1) Trumpets of Praise- with Johannes Vermeer’s The Art of Painting

2) The confessions of our failures- with Masaccio’s The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden

3) Tears of pain and lament- with Pablo Picasso’s The Old Guitarist

4) The first fruits of harvest from our labor - with Caravaggio’s Bacchus

5) The Petitions for our coworkers and community with Giovanni Salvi da Sassoferrato’s The Virgin Mary in Prayer

My original 2012 “Plower” painting in oil on canvas. It is now my daughter Kea’s, as it commemorates her Easter Morning Day of salvation.

As a remarkable “Holy Spirit Wink”: the night of the live event as I was pulling up to New City Church, my friend Corey Unger called to tell me he had felt prompted to call me and was seeing “gears and yellow Dahlia flowers”… and asked if that had any meaning to me. It did! My original Plower painting that was on display that night showed the Plower turning over the ground with yellow flowers growing illogically right in the wake of the plow… a symbol from my former church Walnut Hill Community Church in Bethel, CT where it was painted, and where yellow flowers symbolized a life surrendered to the Lord. The day I painted the original painting, my daughter Kea, not yet age 3, gave her life to Christ. Corey didn’t even know that painting was on display or that I was schedule to paint just minutes after his call… it was a true answer to a Spirit prompt. It was his statement of “Gears and Flowers” that led to me working in that fusion as a metaphor.

Back in my studio I was visited by a friend KC Clark who came to share about his difficult year vocationally. As I described the five roundels I was painting while he visited, I found the work ministering directly to KC and his story. As he left, he gave me a handkerchief from his wife’s recent album, and it featured a Dahlia flower, only the second time I can remember someone mentioning that flower by name… Corey Unger had said he specifically saw yellow Dahlia flowers. I took a picture of KC and his gift next to the painting in its last hours in my studio, just before I added the yellow Dahlias… it was such a clear “push” to finish strong and add the element of the flowers I had been inspired/ directed to include. I just love when God does something with such confirmation to show that He is with us pushing our work forward from behind with a supernatural power beyond anything “we could ask or imagine” [Eph. 3]. I felt like St. Isidore in the midst of my painting!

Let the Children Come To Me

In June of 2023 I collaborated with long time friend and faithful artistic champion / client Dr. Sarah Marsh. My wife and I have known and loved Sarah since our college years, and have watched in awe as she has worked tirelessly to earn her MD, marry and expand her delightful family, and get her certification as a pediatric doctor. I was humbled when she came to me to ask to create a work of art to hang in her pediatric practice as a blessing to her patients, families, and fellow staff. “Let the Children Come to Me” was born out of our discussions about her vision for the painting based on the passages in Matthew, Mark, and Luke where Jesus tells his distracted and self important disciples to allow the (seemingly insignificant) children to come to him. I intentionally included specific figures in reference of Sarah’s three daughters and diverse clientele, celebrating the diversity and beauty of God’s expansive love to humanity. In a day of heightened division and open hostility between warring nations, political ideologies, religions, and races, Jesus’ message of love is more relevant than ever.

As I worked on this painting, I realized that despite its much larger scale, it is the same physical proportion as my earlier Lausanne Movement Four Pillar Paintings and carries the same global DNA vision of God’s Kingdom as the other works, this time focusing specifically on children. As the Lausanne Movement prepares for the L4 global gathering in Seoul, Korea in Oct. 2024, I feel this work is a harbinger of the vision yet to come. Evangelical leaders from every region will be gathering to plan to accomplish the “Whole Church, bringing the Whole Gospel, to the Whole World” by 2050 (scripture translated into every language, a christian presence in every community on earth = the four pillars of Lausanne). In 2050, those who are only children now, or are not yet even born, will be our young and emerging leaders. As we plan to gather at L4 to hear God’s heart for the Great Commission in our day, may we not forget to “Let the Children Come” with us so that we can stay with them in the arms of Jesus.

Here are the four pillars of Lausanne with “Let The Children Come to Me” added beside them:

1) The gospel for every person on earth

2) A Christ centered church for every community

3) A Christ-like leader for every church

4) The Kingdom in every sphere of society

*) Every generation at work in the Great Commission.

"Morning Watch" YMCA Camp Harrison, Session 7, July 2023

Artist Bryn Gillette attended each of the "Morning Watch" devotionals during session 7 led by Liz.  After listening to the message, Bryn would take some time that day to draw an image in pen representing the central Bible lesson from the morning.  It was Liz's desire that campers would discover more about who Jesus is and what he is like through these lessons.

• Monday: Liz and Dom are represented pulling the plow with the yoke that they had imaginatively acted out in reference to Jesus' promise to come into every aspect of our lives and support us.  When Liz tried to pull it alone, she couldn't, but when Dom (playing Jesus) stepped in, he could shoulder the weight on the shared yoke and easily pull the load. "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."  Matt. 11:29

• Tuesday Liz shared about resting on the bottom of the ocean in California with her scuba gear when she was in her teens and was struggling with her faith, and that the Bible verses she had memorized as a child came back to her: [Psalm 139:7-8 NIV] "7 Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there."

• Wednesday several staff members joined Liz to reenact Jesus sleeping in a boat in a storm and that Jesus woke up to calm the wind and waves with his voice "They recognized it was the same voice that had spoken them into existence in the very beginning of time" (Paraphrase of the Jesus Storybook Bible).  Bryn drew the five staff members from their performance into the boat in a storm.  

• Thursday was a picture of a house built high on a rock safely above the waves, compared to the house on the sand flattened as its foundations gave out in the storm.  This is from Jesus' parable in Matt. 7 reminding us that Jesus' words are trustworthy and strong and we need to put them into practice in our lives, and Liz had shared how an earthquake in New Zealand had revealed the houses built upon sandy foundations that were destroyed.

• Friday Liz shared about playing football with the band "Five Iron Frenzy" before attending their concert, and how she had tried to find her identity and worth in activities like scuba diving, rock climbing, and snowboarding rather than trust in the "Shield" of God's protection and covering.  Ps. 91:4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart."  The pictures shows a teenage Liz curled up in confusion between these competing sources of her identity.

• Saturday morning Liz, Dom, and Bryn all gathered to retell the messages from the first five days through these images, and then Liz compared Bryn's paintbrush in the hands of a master to how God takes an ordinary person like us and makes a masterpiece through our lives.  Bryn added the brush into the bottom left of the work during breakfast just before campers were picked up.  Ephesians 2:10 NLT "10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."

May these images help remind us what the Lord taught us in week 7 through the faithful teaching of sister Liz, and may the Holy Spirit bring the songs and the Word of God back to our hearts and minds whenever we need direction and truth!  Amen.                                               - Brother Bryn