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Colored Pencil Folk Art Bible
The Old Testament in 40 Drawings by Maeona L. Urban
Presented by Yachats Baptist Church
Explore Maeona L. Urban’s collection of 40 colored-pencil folk art drawings inspired by the 39 books of the Old Testament, including two distinct works representing Psalms. The catalogue presents the artist’s visual interpretations, symbolic choices, and creative process for each painting.
THE STORY BEHIND THE COLLECTION
Maeona L. Urban’s Old Testament collection grew from decades of Bible study, note-taking, and artistic reflection. The project began with detailed study charts created over three to four years, using a yearly Bible-reading schedule together with Irving L. Jensen’s Independent Bible Study. Because Psalms required two charts, the 39 books of the Old Testament ultimately became 40 separate paintings.
What began as a study project gradually became a lifelong artistic undertaking. Maeona returned to the work over many years, developing the paintings intermittently across approximately 35 to 40 years. After moving to Yachats in 2013, she continued working on the collection nearly every week through Art in the Kitchen.
She chose a folk-art style intentionally. Unlike conventional realism, folk art allowed her to place the same person in several scenes within one painting, combine events from different chapters, and arrange symbols according to meaning rather than strict time or perspective. Each work therefore functions not only as an illustration, but also as a visual record of her study, questions, discoveries, humor, faith, and imagination.
Together, these 40 paintings form a visual journey through the Old Testament—from Genesis to Malachi—showing judgment and mercy, rebellion and restoration, human failure and the continuing faithfulness of God.
EXPLORE THE PAINTINGS
ABOUT MAEONA L. URBAN
Maeona L. Urban is a self-taught, third-generation artist whose creative life began in childhood. She started painting at approximately eight years old and has continued exploring art through landscapes, seascapes, florals, portraits, cultural studies, personal memories, and imaginative subjects.
Her Old Testament collection grew from years of Bible study and a desire to understand Scripture visually. What began with detailed study charts eventually developed into 40 colored-pencil folk art paintings representing the 39 books of the Old Testament, with two works devoted to Psalms.
Maeona’s approach is deeply personal. She uses color, repeated figures, symbolic objects, humor, questions, and carefully chosen visual details to show how she understood each biblical book. The paintings are not intended as literal reconstructions of every event. They are artistic reflections of what she saw, wondered about, and remembered while studying Scripture.
After moving to Yachats in 2013, Maeona continued working on the collection regularly through Art in the Kitchen. Her husband, Ron, has supported her artistic journey in many practical ways: making her frames, helping provide supplies in the early years, driving her to art classes at the museum, helping build her studio, and serving as her most trusted critic.
Maeona and Ron are also the parents of two sons. With her characteristic humor, she says they are part of the reason the Old Testament paintings took approximately 40 years to complete.
Her decades-long project reflects perseverance, curiosity, faith, family support, and a lifelong commitment to creating art.