"The Sower" & "The Harvest"
The Story Behind the Paintings
I painted The Sower, oil on panel, in 1986 and ever since I’ve had it in mind to paint the natural corollary to it—a reaper. Right? Now in 2026 I finally unveil its sequel, simply titled The Harvest. Perhaps it could (most kindly) be said that this painting was “40 Years in the Making!”
Together, it is my prayer that the two paintings form a powerful visual testimony to Jesus’ Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:3-8, Mark 4:14-20).
In The Sower, a vertical composition, a faithful servant walks toward the viewer, broadcasting seeds of light across a freshly plowed field. Night is falling as the sun has just set behind distant mountains. A crescent moon and emerging stars appear in the twilight sky. It is here that a pair of crows approach the field to nab a free supper. The seeds in mid-air and in his bag glow with a soft radiance, illuminating both the sower and his path forward. Thorns, rocks, and weeds border the field—reminders of the hardened, shallow, and distracted hearts described in the Parable. Yet where the seeds find good soil, they will quickly take root and begin to grow.
This painting proclaims that the Sower sows the Word—and the Word is Jesus (John 1:1, 1:14). He is the Light of the World (John 8:12), and the seeds are seeds of light and life. As John 3:16-21 reminds us, Light has come into the world, and those who love truth come to it.
To the unsaved, I would pray the artwork says, “Receive Jesus, the Seed, into the good soil of a repentant heart. Call upon His name today and be saved!”
To the believer: “Work while it is yet day, for the night is coming when no one can work. Be a sower of light!”
The Harvest shows the same faithful servant just a few months later. He has just returned to the fields and pauses to take in the abounding beauty of the scene, his scythe resting across his shoulders. The crescent moon in the surrendering nighttime sky echoes the shape of scythe’s sharp blade. The brilliant golden sunrise pushes back the stars and begins to flood the rolling valley with light. Lingering fog drifts over a winding river that reflects the colors of the dawn in muted hues. Before the reaper stretches a luminous crop—a more that hundredfold return—dancing with new seeds of light. A small flock of crows is gathering in the distance, but the abundance is overwhelming. The farmer pauses in his moment of thanksgiving and praise. It is in this moment of solitude that he remembers the mindful caveat of Jesus: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”
These paintings together declare the full cycle of the Kingdom: sowing in faith, even in twilight, and reaping a glorious harvest in the morning light. They invite viewers to examine the soil of their own hearts and to join in the joyful work of sowing and reaping for God’s glory.