Kathleen Peterson has a series of oil paintings depicting sacred women from the scriptures recently exhibited at the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City. She lives in rural Utah on a farm with her husband and Pete the dog. “I just pictured the scene of the story about Mary, Jesus’ mother. I tried to illustrate what it seemed like to me. First I read the scripture,” said Peterson, describing her process to create the paintings, “I actually pray all the time before I paint.”
Talk about your Sacred Women series. How were you approached, how was the development, and what has been the reception. “Girls Who Choose God” by Bethany Brady Spalding and McArthur Krishna was written in response to a question Bethany’s daughter asked as they were reading the Bible together at night. Her daughter asked Bethany, “Mom, but where are all the girls?” After searching children’s books for Bible women, Bethany and McArthur wrote their own book highlighting eleven women and their stories. Being familiar with my work, they contacted me to ask if I would illustrate the stories which I was pleased to do. The book which became available last October has been very well received, and in fact was sold out mid-December and had a second printing by January of 2015.
Visit Kathleen Peterson’s website.
