Colorblind artist gave up day job to paint in churches

By Nazarii Baytler —

Lance Brown has always been a skilled artist. Since a young age, he had the ability to draw nearly anything. However, he has one unusual quality for an artist — colorblindness.

“That has always been a struggle,” Lance says in a testimonial video from 2015. “However, my wife and kids help me out a lot.”

When Lance graduated from an art institute in 1999, he got a job in graphic design. After years, though, Lance decided he was wasting his talent.

“That’s when I started painting,” Lance continues. “I just went to the art store and bought a bunch of paints.”

However, Lance was not quite sure yet what he was going to do with his new supplies.

“I just decided to start the painting. And so, through that, God showed me that I was pretty good!” Lance says.

It wasn’t long before Lance had set up a side business for freelance artwork.

“About six years ago, I made a painting for my church, Arlington Fielder Road Baptist,” Lance recounts.

Lance was then asked to do the same painting, but on stage. However, surprisingly, Lancer refused the proposal.

“However, what I found in stepping out of my comfort zone, there were blessing prepared by God that I didn’t even know was there,” Lance continues.

The Holy Spirit led Lance to eventually get up on stage. However, what Lance had in mind was going on stage, painting, and leaving as soon as possible.

God had other plans.

“Once I got up there, it totally caught me off guard,” Lance recalls. “It was such a worship experience for me personally, which I did not expect.”

To this day, Lance still gets emotional when making his trademark Jesus paintings. Creating something from nothing is very personal to him.

As soon as Lance did that fateful first painting, he thought to himself, “I want to do that again.”

“I went to my Bible study group and asked for the guys to pray for me,” Lance says. “I started a website, Painted Christ, put myself out there, and started introducing myself to churches in the area.”

Lance’s opportunities were few and far between. A year later, he got laid off from his previous job. Lance was convinced that painting was God’s plan for him.

“I fell flat on my face. It just didn’t work at the time,” Lance admits. “It was only a year after starting. I just wasn’t ready.”

Lance got a different job, but he persisted with his painting.

In 2013, a tragic turn of events led to Lance’s house flooding. Later, it caught fire during the process of repairing the flood damage.

“We were in a hotel for five months. At the time, it was so depressing,” Lance continues. “I just said that I couldn’t do it anymore.”

Lance took down his website, and officially quit. However, he soon found that if God wants you for something, he is going to find a way to get your attention no matter what.

“I had some YouTube videos out there that I forgot about,” Lance recounts. “And He (God) showed those videos to somebody. That somebody was a little church called Watermark in Dallas.”

Watermark requested that Lance perform at their church, re-igniting Lance’s passion for painting.

Not too long after that, Lance and his family got their house back. In 2014, Lance got an urge to grow and expand his boundaries.

“I’m reaching out to everybody and asking them to pray for me,” Lance says. “My wife and I walked out of our job for ethical reasons with no backup plan, which was super scary.”

Lance once again made an attempt to start painting in churches. However, this time, God allowed tons of unexpected requests to come in. Business for Lance was blowing up and his schedule was full.

“People came into my life that wanted to help me,” Lance continues. “It’s been a crazy ride, and I’ve got many stories of God’s provision for me.”

Lance considers his painting career to be the “scariest and most rewarding thing” he’s ever done. His style is called “speed painting” because he completes the full painting in a short time while worship music plays in a live performance.

“God’s given me a talent, and I want to use it for Him,” Lance says. “He’s turned it into so much more than I originally had in mind.”

If you want to know more about a personal relationship with God, go here

Nazarii Baytler studies at the Lighthouse Christian Academy in Santa Monica. He’s also a budding artist.