There Was a Great Calm

Mark 4:39Study and small group

$24.00

Some years you are the one who holds the room steady. The group comes on Wednesday with diagnoses and redundancies and moves, and you pray them through it while your own family is crossing something too. On the wall the chairs face, beside the bookshelf, there is wide water gone flat at first light, one small blue boat still out on it. It is something quiet to look at on the evenings the room is full of hard news. A guest who does not share the faith sees a lake and a boat and asks about it, and you get to answer in your own words.

1. Select your Finish: Print only

170 gsm archival matte paper, ships rolled

Print only

Perfect for self-framing

Framed+ $35.00

2. Select your Size:

12x16 in / 30x40 cm24x32 in / 60x80 cm+ $20.0018x24 in / 45x60 cmMost popular+ $10.00

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Mark 4 wall art

The water went flat before anyone woke

From the doorway it is mostly water. Wide, grey-blue, gone completely flat, the way a lake goes when the wind has finished with it. Along the top the far bank sits low and close, near enough to reach before the kettle boils. First light is on everything and nothing casts a shadow yet.

One small blue boat is still out there, not making for anywhere in particular. On the evenings the chairs are full and the news is hard, that is where your eye goes, and it is enough to rest on while somebody else is talking.

People read it differently. One woman in the group sees the morning after a bad night, water that has stopped arguing. Another sees a boat in no hurry, because there is nothing left to outrun. Someone else only ever looks at the far bank, close enough to reach. Nobody agrees, and the room is better for it, which is the sort of home you keep.

From the artist

I keep looking at the one boat

Maren Hale

Arrivals and still places

I keep coming back to the light on this water. It arrives before anything else, low and thin, and it finds the boat first, a small blue thing left out on all that stillness. The water has stopped moving entirely. Not asleep, I think. Just done. And the far bank lies along the top of the picture, so close that the crossing feels nearly behind whoever is out there, though nobody has stepped ashore yet.

What I hope is that it hangs somewhere people say hard things out loud, and that when the talking stops there is somewhere for the eyes to go. A flat stretch of morning. A little room to breathe before anyone has to answer.

Gift for a hard year

Handed over instead of a card

One woman buys it for her own study at the end of a year she spent praying other people through diagnoses and moves, while her own family was crossing something quietly. She would tell you the group is as much a support group as a Bible study, and that she wanted one wall in the house that asks nothing of her.

The other buys it for a couple in the middle of it. The leader carries it in and there is no card, because nothing on a card says it better than the crossing itself: nobody was promised an easy night, only the other side. They can hang it whenever they are ready.

It sits well on the wall the circle of chairs faces, beside the bookshelf, where the 60x80 cm framed size holds the room from across it.

Choose a size

What arrives

What comes out of the tube or the box

170 gsm matte paper Print only: an uncoated sheet printed to its edges, off white, no shine under a study lamp.
12 mm black wood frame Flat square profile, 12 mm wide and 22 mm deep, matte, plexiglass front, no mat, on 170 gsm coated silk paper.
Three sizes 30x40, 45x60 and 60x80 cm, or 12x16, 18x24 and 24x32 in. The largest holds a wall a circle of chairs faces.

Questions about Mark 4

What people ask before they hang it

1.What does the verse in Mark 4 say?

Mark 4:39 reads: he rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. It comes at the end of the crossing that begins earlier in the chapter, when the boat sets out for the other side. The picture is not the storm, it is the morning after it, and what that means is left to you.

2.Is this a good gift for someone going through a hard time?

It is one of the pieces people give when a card is not enough: a couple in a hard year, a friend between jobs, a family waiting on results. There is no text across the image, so it does not tell them how to feel about any of it. If you want words, say them out loud when you hand it over, and let the water do the rest.

3.Which size works above a bookshelf or behind a circle of chairs?

For a wall a group of chairs faces, the 60x80 cm framed size reads clearly from the far side of the room. Above a bookshelf or a low cabinet, 45x60 cm sits comfortably without crowding the shelf. The 30x40 cm suits a narrow stretch of wall, a desk corner or a hallway you pass rather than sit in.

4.Will it feel too religious for a room where guests sit?

It is a lake, a low far bank and one blue boat, painted quietly, with a small verse reference line as the only anchor. A guest who does not share the faith usually sees water and weather and asks where it came from. Then you answer in your own words, which is the whole point of it.

Season of change