by James H. Pence

When we talk about "value" in art, many people might think that we're discussing how much a painting is worth. Although that can be true, more often than not the word value is referring to how light or dark a particular color or shade is...

by James H. Pence

Watercolors are hard to control! That's usually the reason people say that they don't like to use them. However, with a little practice, you'll find that watercolors aren't all that difficult to work with. Better yet, they can be a lot of fun. In today's video tip, I'll give you a simple practice exercise that will help you learn how to control watercolors.

By James H. Pence

Art appreciation is a key part of any well-rounded art curriculum. With that in mind, the last Thursday of each month we will feature a different "artist of the month."

by James H. Pence

In last week's video tip, we looked at some watercolor basics. This week we're going to learn how to do a color wheel -- sort of. Actually, we'll be working on a color "triangle". A color triangle is a great (and fun!) way to see how the primary colors mix and create the complementary colors. So, get out some watercolor paper, brushes, and paints, and lets see what we can come up with...

by James H. Pence

Next Tuesday, I'm going to show you how to make your own color wheel. In anticipation of that, I've listed some web sites that focus on color theory. The sites I've listed offer something for all ages... 

Watercolors often get a bad rap for being "hard to control," but they can be a lot of fun to work with. In today's video art tip, STL chalk artist, Jim Pence, shares some watercolor basics and a fun (and easy!) project.

by James H. Pence

As parents, we all enjoy displaying our children's artwork around the house. Often, the gallery of choice is the refrigerator. And, as galleries go, that's a pretty good location. It's certainly a place that's visited many times during the day by all the members of the family. What could be better?

While it's true that the kitchen refrigerator is a great gallery for young artists, why stop there? 

Last week's "Joy of Art" video tip focused on the first element of art: line. This week, we'll take it a step further by thinking about shape. In today's video you'll learn how to go on a "shape scavenger hunt...

by James H. Pence

On the See the Light blog this year, our goal is to provide useful and practical tips and resources for your homeschool art class. Today's focus is on Web sites that will help you teach your children about one of the seven key elements of art: line...

Happy 2012! We're going to start the new year off with a brand new video tip series based on Jim Pence's "Joy of Art" segments on the See the Light Bible story DVDs. These art tips will focus on working with different media such as watercolor, pastels, pen and ink, and much more. Today's segment is titled "Fun with Lines".

"Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu"

Not sure what that means? Click through to find out...

by James H. Pence

It's almost time to ring in 2012. And with New Year's Day just a few days away, here are some fun craft ideas to make that New Year's party extra special...

by James H. Pence

I love to draw Christmas trees--with lots of lights. And what better way to do that than with black light chalk. Today's video tip will show you how...

by James H. Pence

Christmas is less than a week away, so I thought it might be fun to put up a couple of Christmas chalk / black-light video tips...

by James H. Pence

In Tuesday’s blog I mentioned something called “negative space.”

Negative space drawing almost sounds like some weird, astronomical concept that you need a Ph.D. to understand. Actually, it’s a pretty simple idea. Instead of drawing an object, you draw the space in and around the object.

Scratching your head?

Let me give you an illustration that will make it crystal clear.

by James H. Pence

Have you ever heard of the seven elements of art?  

Actually, there's a difference of opinion on the number of elements. Some people suggest only five, others six, but most lists include seven. If I were to give you a pop quiz right now, could you list them?

by James H. Pence

On Tuesday, we shared some easy Christmas craft ideas for you and your children to work on. If those weren't enough to keep you busy, here are five more. On a couple of these, with a little imagination, some fluorescent paint, and a black light, you could have some real fun...

By James H. Pence

It's hard to believe, but there are only about three weeks left till Christmas. And I don't know about you, but I love Christmas decorations and crafts. Our children are grown now, but we still have many of the crafts and ornaments they made when they were growing up. With that in mind, I thought I'd sift through the Internet and share some easy Christmas craft ideas that you and your children can do together. 

Of course, there are thousands of good ideas out there, but here are five of my favorites...

by James H. Pence

Do you know what it feels like to be an exile?

It was the summer of 1975. I was nineteen years old and I had signed on to a program called Practical Missionary Training (PMT). Co-sponsored by CAM International and Wycliffe Bible Translators, PMT was an eight-week missionary life “sampler” for people who wanted to explore whether God was calling them to the mission field. Rather than being a simple “mission trip,” PMT was structured to give a broad sampling of different aspects of missionary life. Even though it was a “sampler,” each participant’s experience was individualized to a certain degree.

By James H. Pence

What do you think of when you hear the word pilgrim?

In America most of us probably form a mental picture of the people who celebrated the first Thanksgiving, dressed in their austere black clothing, complete with funny hats. For some, the word might bring to mind John Bunyan’s allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress. Others may think about the pilgrimage that Muslims must make to Mecca once in a lifetime...

On behalf of everyone at See the Light, we want to wish you and your family a blessed and happy Thanksgiving.

by James H. Pence

I go into prisons frequently to do chalk art, and I almost never get through a service without hearing the inmates proclaim God’s goodness. It usually goes like this...

Last Thursday we looked at five easy Thanksgiving craft ideas for you and your children to have fun with. Well, there's still a week to go before Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd see if I could find some more interesting (and easy) ways to brighten up your thanksgiving dinner.

Is it just me, or are we seeing less and less “thanks” on Thanksgiving?

It seems that with every passing year the last Thursday in November has less to do with thankfulness and more to do with consumerism. That trend is most dramatically illustrated in the morphing of the holiday name from “Thanksgiving” into “Turkey Day”.

by James H. Pence

Believe it or not, Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away. With that in mind, I thought it would be nice to share all of my awesome Thanksgiving craft ideas with you. Unfortunately, I'm not very "crafty". And so instead, I decided to look around the Internet for Web sites with ideas for crafts that you and your children can make for this Thanksgiving. 

I could easily give you hundreds of links, but here are my top five suggestions:

by James H. Pence

What is it that makes you say, “Wow!”

You know what I mean. There are times in all of our lives when we see something so amazing, so incredible, so jaw-dropping that, if we can say anything, it’s usually just one word. Wow!

By James H. Pence

If you had asked me about twenty years ago to give you my thoughts about the future of chalk art (chalk talk), I would have told you that it was a dying art. As a matter of fact, that is exactly what I told people back in the mid to late 1980s. And I wasn’t the only one saying it.

by James H. Pence

I’ve always known that chalk art is a powerful means of communication, but until this past Sunday night, I never realized just how powerful it actually is.

I did a chalk drawing in prison Sunday night and the instant my wife and I arrived at the classroom that functions as a chapel, I sensed that something was up. Normally when we enter a prison, we’re accompanied by a correctional officer from the time we get inside the gate until the time we leave. This time there were four officers, two of whom were exceptionally large...

by James H. Pence

Arguably, the “reveal” of the invisible black light picture at the end of a chalk drawing is the most important part of the drawing. Often—in my pictures at least—it is the climax, the place where the message of the drawing hits home. Thus, you want to make the most of every black light picture. Here are several tips on how to maximize the invisible picture’s impact...

by James H. Pence

A key component of any chalk artist’s presentation is the lighting.

In the past, when drawings were mostly “chalk talks”, there wasn’t much need for lighting beyond white lights. The surprise at the end of the drawing (which also functioned as the punch line or application) was usually accomplished through the clever manipulation of lines. The artist would appear to be drawing one thing and then it would suddenly turn into something different...

by James H. Pence

In chalk art, the medium and the message are bound together. Thus, you the chalk artist must decide how you plan to communicate the message through your art. Although it is possible to draw in silence, not talking and with no backup music, it’s not a very effective way to communicate. So, virtually all chalk artists choose to engage their audiences one way or another while they are drawing...

by James H. Pence

The use of chalk to communicate a message goes all the way back to the late 1800s. Back in those days, people called it “chalk talk.” That was because most chalk drawings were done either on blackboards with white chalk or white paper with black chalk. Most of the time, the artists didn’t draw what we would consider “artistic” pictures (e.g. landscapes, seascapes, still life); rather, they would do line art—more like a cartoon.

And as the artists drew, they would talk...

Anyone who has seen a chalk drawing knows that when the artist finishes his picture, he turns on a black light and a previously "invisible" picture appears. But how does the artist get the picture up there? The "secret" is invisible fluorescent chalk, and in today's video tip, STL chalk artist Jim Pence demonstrates how invisible fluorescent chalk works.

By James H. Pence

If you are going to be a chalk artist, obviously you will need the right kind of chalk and paper. Unfortunately you can’t just run out to your local art supply store and buy a set. In fact, most art supply houses not only don’t carry the right kind of chalk, most of them haven’t even heard of it. The chalk you need is called “lecturer’s chalk”, but if you go into your local arts and crafts store and ask for it, they’ll look at you as though you told them you just flew in from Mars.

by James H. Pence 

There are two types of easels that chalk artists use: free-standing and tripod. A third variety, the bed-sheet easel, is more of a specialty easel that enables you to draw in a very large format (about 4 by 8 feet). However, this type of easel isn’t great for beginners, so I won't be covering it in this post.

by James H. Pence

I want to be a chalk artist. Can I go to my local arts and crafts store and buy an easel?

Probably not.

by James H. Pence

Okay, so you’ve decided that you want to be a chalk artist.

What comes next?

That’s kind of a “Which came first, the chicken or the egg” question. Chalk art equipment can be costly. So, should you buy and watch some instructional DVDs first and then invest in your chalk, easel, lighting, etc? Or should you just jump in with both feet, set up an easel and start learning to draw from day one?

M7E75EYNAAUY

By James H. Pence

Probably the most frequently asked question about chalk art is, "Do I need to have artistic ability to be a chalk artist."

And my answer to the question is frustratingly ambiguous...

by James H. Pence

How did you become a chalk artist?”

I’ve been asked that question many times over the years. A question that usually goes with it is, “Have you always been artistic?” Often I find that people who ask the second question are really saying, “I’d like to try chalk art, but I’m not sure if I have enough ‘talent’.”

For me, becoming a chalk artist was a long process.

by James H. Pence

On September 11^th, 2001, I knew that the world my children would grow up in had changed dramatically. Terrorism had been around for years, but in the past it was far removed; it was something that happened in other countries, to other people.

But now it was here, on American soil.

by James H. Pence

I was eight years old when John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

I remember my third grade teacher announcing that the president had been shot, although I can’t recall her exact words. I do remember seeing some of the girls in my class crying.

On Tuesday, we looked at several possible layouts for our sailboat on the beach picture. In today's video tip, I'll show you why I placed the sailboat where I did.

By Jim Pence

Last week we analyzed our beach picture and sketched out the major lines in the photo. But how to we get the sailboat in there? And how do we figure out where to put it?

By Jim Pence

How do you “splice” two pictures together and make them one?

It’s not as difficult as you might think.

On Tuesday’s blog I chose the two reference photos that I wanted to use to create my new painting. (I’ve decided to do it as a watercolor.) But before I drag out the paints and watercolor paper, I want to play around with the layout a bit. In other words, I want to give some time thinking about my painting’s composition.

By Jim Pence

If you want to use reference photos (your own or someone else’s) as idea material for your paintings, the best place to begin is by realizing that only rarely will a single photo be sufficient for your needs. There are many reasons for this. If you’re working from snapshots you took on vacation, the photos might be cluttered with “unwanted” subject matter (e.g. cars, people walking by, etc.). If you’re working from a copyrighted photo, you won’t want to directly copy it (unless you have permission).

So what do you do?

By Jim Pence

I just came back from a relaxing week of vacation at a cottage on Lake Michigan. And, like most tourists, I took a lot of pictures. Since this was a family reunion, I wasn’t the only one taking photos. Near the end of the week, my brother-in-law began to compile a CD with all of the pictures taken that week so that everyone in the family could share them.

“Would you like to put your pictures on the group CD?” he asked me.

“Sure,” I said. “But they aren’t very interesting.”

By Jim Pence

Are you always looking for new and fresh subjects for your paintings or drawings? Then you might need to consider developing a “morgue file”.

No, I don’t mean a room where dead bodies are kept...

by Jim Pence

Tuesday's post showed you the technique needed to draw distant trees in chalk, but it was all done in white chalk. Today we'll do the trees in color.

by Jim Pence

In part one this week's video tip, we're going to learn how to draw distant trees in chalk. As with mountains, it all comes down to one basic motion. In this case, it's an overhand loop.

by Jim Pence

If you've ever tried to buy paper for art projects, you may have walked away scratching your head. There are so many different varieties of paper for pencils, pastels, and chalks, it's hard to know what to buy. And, because many of these art papers can be quite expensive, it's important to know what you need so that you don't buy the wrong paper.

Believe it or not, entire books have been written about art paper, comparing and contrasting the different kinds, so this post won’t be anywhere near exhaustive. The following are just some simple guidelines for choosing paper for your homeschool art class.

by Jim Pence

I'm leaving on vacation Friday and I'm really looking forward to getting away.

One reason is that here in North Texas we have been living with 100+ degree temperatures for going on 40 days now. I saw on the news the other day that our average temperature for the month of August has been 107.1.

by Jim Pence

This week, we at See the Light are celebrating the release of our latest DVD, "God's Runaway", which features one of the greatest stories in the Bible: the story of Jonah.

If you are familiar with the book of Jonah, you know that a stormy sea plays a big part in the story. Because of that, I thought I'd do a video tip this week that shows you how to draw a stormy sea in chalk. So get out your chalk (or pastels), roll up your sleeves, and let's draw a stormy sea.

by Jim Pence

Jonah is one of my favorite Old Testament books, but not because it is a great story.

Of course, the book of Jonah is one of the great stories of the Old Testament. It is full of drama and excitement, and as a storyteller, I appreciate that.

But that’s not why I love Jonah....

by Jim Pence

Mountains are majestic, beautiful, and fun to draw. And, with a little practice, they're pretty easy to draw, too. On Tuesday's blog, I explained the steps for drawing a mountain in chalk. However, it's not always easy to work from photographs alone. So, in today's post, I've included a video tip that will show you how I draw mountains when I'm working with chalk.

I hope you enjoy it...

by Jim Pence

I love to draw mountains. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because I live in North Texas where everything is flat. But there’s something majestic about mountains that evokes a deep sense of awe in me. And so, I enjoy incorporating them into my chalk drawings whenever I can.

This week, I’m going to show you how to draw a simple mountain, using 1”x1”x3” lecturer’s chalk (the kind that gospel chalk artists use). If you don’t have any lecturer’s chalk, pastels will work just as well...

by Jim Pence

Last week we learned how to do blind contour drawing. If you've had a chance to practice it, and I hope you have, you probably experienced more than a little frustration. After all, when we draw we want to be pleased with the results, but that's not easy with blind contour drawing. In fact more often than not, our finished "drawing" actually looks more like a two-year-old’s scribbling...

When I teach an art class, the first rule I give my students is, “You’ve got to have fun!”

I mean that. If art class is not fun, there’s really no point in having it. Art is about expressing yourself. It’s about exploring your creativity. But it’s also about joy.

So how can you make art class fun? Here are some suggestions:

Athletes stretch their muscles before they work out. Do you know how to stretch your drawing muscles?

By James H. (Jim) Pence

I remember the first time I noticed how many different shades of green I could see in a grove of trees...

How important is art education?

Today I came across an interesting online poll sponsored by Liberty Mutual.

There was only one question: Is art education important? Only a “yes” or “no” response was permitted.

Out of almost 18,000 responses, the results were...

Some of you have asked to have ART CLASS discs sold individually.  See the Light listened carefully.  As of this moment, the See the Light store is not only offering the discs to be sold individually, but is also giving. . . 

This series has underscored for me (and for so many readers) the powerful effect a Dad has on the future life of his children!

In Chinese calligraphy, the words dangerous opportunity are joined together to make the word crisis. Truly, a father has a dangerous opportunity – a crisis – in which he can negatively tear down his children or build positively into their lives.

These are excerpts from a few dads that highlight specific goals for their children. . . 

After talking with children, it seemed like a very good idea to ask adults about the significance of dads in their lives.  So I did. Here are their fascinating and varied responses. . . 

These answers will make you smile, think, and – hopefully -ask your own children this question.  Let’s take a look. . . 

Time with dads is limited, of course. I wondered how kids really want to spend time with dads. These answers aren’t surprising, but they do let us know what matters to our children. . . 

Kids are great.  I dearly love to talk with them and ask questions, so let’s get to it. I’ll share the age, name, and answer to this first important question. . .  

Fathers play such a powerful role in our lives. For many of us our fathers are (or were) our heroes. We appreciate them for their love, guidance, and for the lessons they have taught us.

A good father can set an example of strength, honor, sacrifice, and responsibility. 

 But - what do kids - of all ages - say about their dad?

I, Pat Holt, decided to find out. . . 

One of the things I like most about living out in the country is what I call “natural landscaping”. My kids laugh when they hear me say that, because in their opinion it's simply an excuse not to mow the grass. And while I have to admit that there's an advantage to not mowing the grass, that's not my primary motivation.

“Here I raise mine Ebenezer. Hither by thy help I’m come.”

Anybody remember that line from the original version of the old hymn, “Come, Thou Fount”?

That line has been changed in more recent hymnals, mostly because modern readers have no idea what an Ebenezer is. The term comes from I Samuel 7, after God had miraculously delivered the Israelites from the Philistines. “Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, ‘Thus far the LORD has helped us,’” (I Samuel 7:12, NIV).

“Ebenezer” means...

The perimeter of the elegant ballroom was filled with about thirty easels, each holding a beautifully framed, hand-drawn portrait. Being an art lover, I walked over to one of the easels for a closer look.

The work was exquisite.

Drawn only in pencil, the portraits were so detailed, they looked like photographs. Actually, they looked better than photographs.

I wandered from easel to easel until I had examined each drawing.

As I looked at each picture, I felt a lump forming in my throat. You see, these were not ordinary drawings; they were portraits of fallen soldiers.

CHALKING BEHIND BARS, PART TWO

When the chaplain and I crossed the grounds of the prison yesterday, we were greeted by big smiles.

"It's the chalk artist," said the lieutenant. He nudged the sergeant, who was standing beside him. “You have to see one of his drawings. They’re amazing.”

This is the fifth time I've been at this particular prison over the last several years. Because of that, a lot of the staff members look forward to my chalk drawings as much as the inmates do. The first day that I was there, one staff member came in especially to see my drawing. She didn't even have to work that day, but she'd heard about the chalk art and wanted to make sure she saw one of the drawings.

One year even the warden himself came to see me draw. And as busy as the warden was, it was a great compliment for him to take the time to come by the chapel.

One of the things I love about doing chalk drawings for people is that it cuts across every line. I have drawn for preschoolers and senior citizens, Christians and unbelievers, inmates and prison staff. The venues and age groups don’t matter.  There is a universal fascination with watching someone draw a picture.

Most of us have seen the PBS programs by Bob Ross or Bill Alexander and been fascinated watching them do oil paintings in 30 minutes. And if you've gone somewhere like Jackson Square in New Orleans and seen artists painting on the street, you've probably stopped to watch them for a little while. And of course in amusement parks most of us like to stop for a few minutes and watch the caricature artists at work. Maybe we even have one done of ourselves.

Why are we fascinated by watching someone else draw a picture? I have no idea. I tend to think it's seeing creativity in action. Perhaps witnessing an act of creation awakens in us a little reminder that we are made in the image of God.

I don't know why it works or why it's effective, but I know that whenever I go to a prison or to a church or to a camp or to a vacation Bible school, I have a great responsibility. As I draw, I have the opportunity to evoke in my audience a sense of wonder, a sense of awe, and maybe even a sense of transcendence. Through my creation I have the privilege of pointing them to the creator of the world and, in effect, saying, "Isn't God great?"

Maybe that’s why after thirty-three years and well over a thousand drawings, I have never grown tired of it. I’ll be back in prison again tonight. Hopefully we’ll have a full house of inmates.

And maybe a few staff members.

Whenever I start a new art class, I always give my students one important rule: Have fun!

If you are a homeschooling mom or dad and are teaching art, this rule applies to you too. I see a lot of parents who become frustrated trying to teach art to their children. And one of the reasons, in my opinion, is that they're not sure how to critique their child's work.

After all, when your child brings you a piece of art that looks like it could be at home in the abstract art section of any art museum, and then asks if you like it, what do you say? This is particularly difficult when it's obvious to your child that this is a picture of something.

Often, you find yourself standing there turning the picture in different directions, just trying to figure out what it is. And you diplomatically try to find a way to compliment your child's masterpiece without revealing your ignorance of the subject matter.

You usually come out with something like, "Oh that's so beautiful. It's the best one of those you've ever done."

If we're lucky, our child accepts the praise and doesn't ask the dreaded question, "But does it really look like a... (Fill in the blank)?"

If we're unlucky, our child asks exactly that question. And then we squirm and tried to figure out a nice way to critique the picture without hurting her feelings.

Over the next few weeks, we're going to consider the question: to critique or not to critique. If you're going to teach art to your children sooner or later you are going to have to critique their work. But how do you do that when you're not an artist yourself? More important, how do you critique a child's artwork without hurting his feelings and discouraging him from even trying?

But before you even get to the matter of critique, you need to keep the number one rule in mind: Have fun.

I'm convinced that most children who quit drawing do so because it's not fun anymore. Very young children love to draw and scribble and make enough paintings to plaster the average refrigerator several times over. But once those children get into elementary school and have to learn "art", for many the fun goes away. Something that came naturally and was fun to do now has become work.

God made us in His image, and that means that creativity is part of our nature. When God finished His creation, he said, “It is very good.” Remember that when your child brings you a picture she’s drawn, she is feeling that same sense of satisfaction. In her eyes, it is very good. And that is not the time to enter into a discussion of the proper way to draw a horse (or whatever!).

The time for critique will come. But first comes the joy of creating something and delighting in that creation.

Are you having fun yet?

Next week, I'll be in prison for four days.

No, I'm not on a work-release program. I go into prisons because I choose to.

Back in the mid nineties, I was invited to do a chalk-art presentation at the Wynne Unit in Huntsville, Texas. To be honest, I wasn't too keen on the idea. But early-on in my chalk art ministry I promised God that as long as he kept me in chalk and paper, I'd draw wherever he opened a door.

But I never imagined that he would open a door into a prison.

I'm so squeaky clean that after nearly 40 years of driving I've only had one ticket. I had no idea of what to expect behind the walls of a medium security prison unit, and quite frankly the prospect of being in one room with a couple of hundred convicts scared me to death. But I had made that promise to God.

And so I went.

And my life was changed forever.

When I went in, I expected to find a couple of hundred angry men just daring me to bless them. What I found were men who were hurting, who were hungry, and who simply wanted someone to care about them.

Two things changed my perspective on prison ministry. First, I didn't see "prisoners" or "inmates". I saw men. People just like me. And I realized, perhaps for the first time, "There but for the grace of God, go I." Those men were in prison because of bad choices they had made and bad things that they had done. I could just as easily have made some of those choices, and it's only by God's mercy that I didn't.

Second, I saw that God's grace was sufficient to change the minds and hearts of even hardened criminals.When those men sang during the worship time, I saw a deep hunger and passion reflected on their faces that I rarely see in churches.

Don't get me wrong. Many of those men (and women) have deep, serious issues to deal with before God.

But they know that God loves them and that he is a God of grace, mercy, and forgiveness. And they love him.

And so next week (May 15-18), I will be drawing and singing at the Glen Goodman Unit in Jasper, Texas, sharing God's love and mercy through Jesus Christ.

I'd appreciate your prayers, that God may show his grace through me.

-- James H. (Jim) Pence

Some of you have already met Jim and his lovely wife Laurel at homeschool conventions in Memphis, Greenville, and Cincinnati.   They both had a great time, and look forward to meeting homeschoolers in Oklahoma City today (April 26) and tomorrow (April 27) as well as at THSC convention at The Woodlands in Texas on July 28^th – 30^th.

But what about all of you who won’t be attending those homeschool conventions?

James H. (Jim) Pence is a man of many talents, some of which I’ll share with you in a moment.

But first, I’m so excited to welcome him to the SEE THE LIGHT team of artists. Jim did the JOY OF ART lesson on  “Crossmaker”.  Check him out by clicking on the promo for “Crossmaker”.  You will just love his teaching style as much as 1000’s of kids have through the years. Jim is also contributing a JOY OF ART lesson for each of the next Bible stories to be released:  “God’s Runaway”, “God’s Special Surprise”, and “Shipwrecked”.

But that’s not all to tell about Jim 

Jim is also a performance chalk artist, a singer, a speaker, a published author and (if that weren’t enough), in his “spare time” he teaches karate, writing, and art to home schooled children. Although Jim has been called a ‘Renaissance man’, he prefers to be known simply as a follower of Jesus Christ and a storyteller.

Jim has been drawing and painting and singing since he was a child, and has been doing performance chalk artistry in churches, camps, and conferences across the U.S. for over thirty years.

Wow!  Jim sounds really neat.  How can I get to know him?

 So glad you asked.  You’ll be getting to know Jim through the SEE THE LIGHT blogs beginning next week. He’ll also be posting great art ideas for “Fun Stuff”. He has other exciting ways to share with you and your family. Just tune in to Jim

Where can I meet Jim and when?

We’ll be having a Facebook “Meet and Greet” with Jim from 6 to 6:30 p.m. (Central time) today (Thurs, April 14, 2011) at the See the Light Facebook page. Come on by and ask Jim some questions.

Jim will also be appearing in person at the “See the Light” booth at the:

Oklahoma City Homeschool Convention on April 25, 26, 27^th,   and

the Texas Homeschool Convention on July 28^th, 29^th, and 30^th.

May I schedule Jim for a performance at my church or for a camp or for a conference?

Sure.  In spite of his very busy writing/traveling schedule, Jim loves to visit churches, conventions, conferences, homeschool coop groups, etc.

You’ll soon be able to check out his promo at our website: http://www.seethelightshine.com  It’s really neat to see clips of Jim drawing, singing, speaking, teaching, and - even playing guitar.

P.S.  Believe it or not, there’s lots more to share about Jim’s talents and abilities, but honestly - don’t you think that’s enough for one blog? You can learn more about Jim, his books, and his chalk art ministry by visiting his website: http://www.jamespence.com

Chalk artist, Jim Pence, will be on See the Light's Facebook page tomorrow (Thursday, April 14th) evening from 6 - 6:30 p.m. (Central time).

Jim has been doing chalk art for thirty-three years and is also a musician, speaker, and published author. He joined the See the Light team last year and now represents us at homeschooling conventions. He also does "The Joy of Art" segments on our themed DVDs.

Come to our Facebook page for a meet and greet Thursday evening.

[$34.99 value]  
Includes:  The Crossmaker DVD & CD, See The Light
eXtreme colored pencils, florescent chalk & black light

*Be sure to: 
1.  LIKE the See The Light fan page 
2.  Share your favorite EASTER tradition on the See The Light fan page wall by April 20
3.  Encourage your family & friends to LIKE your comment 

See The Light will randomly select the winning comment on April 21

I, Pat Holt, never learned to draw as a child. How well I recall Fridays in 4th grade – ugh!  It was ART DAY! The well meaning teacher would pass out a blank piece of construction paper, tell the class to get out our crayolas and make a picture!

Following up from my last "Have You Ever Felt Like Screaming?" entry, I wanted to forward the following Mother's Questionnaire that was completed by nearly 200 women from coast to coast in my preparation to write When You Feel Like Screaming - Help for Frustrated Mothers; published by Harold Shaw.

Perhaps you would like to take it as well and compare your results with the collated national sampling, I'll share the Survey Results next time.