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Interview with an artist
Paula Roth loves painting her studio
Hawkins Pond was painted at sunset to capture light sparkling off the leaves of the trees surrounding the pond. I enjoyed the contrast of the shapes of each type of greenery from spikey and straight, to ribboned and round.
It’s no surprise that someone who has lived in as many beautiful places as Paula Roth has, would be drawn to landscape as the subject for her art. This very same landscape has also become a studio for Roth who now takes her easel and paints outdoors to complete her colorful paintings on location.
Roth’s life journey includes time in Nigeria, Colorado, Washington State, Michigan, and finally Ontario, where she married a Canadian. Paula and her husband Ray currently live in Tillsonburg, Ontario where they are members of Hope Reformed Church.
Paula minored in art in college and graduated in 2003 with a B.A. and B.Ed. from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She spent the first 20 years of married life teaching, finding particular fulfillment supporting students with unique learning profiles. “I learned patient perseverance, and hopefully grew in compassion.” Paula has since founded her home-based business, Early Bird Learning Consultant, to support children with learning challenges.
Ruts & Paths was painted in August in Oxford County. I am often drawn to roads as they symbolize a journey. Life can feel uphill, and it takes faith and hope to see beauty in the midst of challenge.
For Roth, art fulfills a need for creative expression and provides a sense of “balance and well-being.” The youthful dream of being an artist began when she was 9. A watercolor artist/neighbor, (also a Wycliffe Bible Translator), took her to buy her first art supplies. She also helped Roth set up a small studio in an old pioneer milking parlor on the property her family was renting at the time. The start was modest but exciting. The studio spaces have been even more modest since then.
During her teaching career, Paula loved to teach art in the classroom setting, and enjoyed making beautiful bulletin board displays. After she left the classroom, to focus on special education, her creative outlets were mostly found at home where she made space for her creative work in corners of bedrooms, on desks, or at the kitchen table.
Motivated in part by her parents’ mantra “You can always learn something new,” Paula is a lifelong learner. She has completed many art classes at Dundas Valley School of Art, including classes by mentors Marla Panko and Guennadi Kalinine.
In 2008, Paula started illustrating for Open Windows, a Free Reformed publication for children creating collage images with paper. Then, about four years ago she discovered a passion for plein air painting. Currently, she is inspired by rural landscapes in Oxford County, ON.
The dream of becoming an accomplished artist still captures Paula’s imagination. “If the Lord wills, I hope to keep taking courses, reading books about painting, and to be out in the field painting as often as I can.”
Paula says, “Painting has taught me to be still. I lose all sense of time and am completely at peace. Pausing to observe, interpret, and represent creation makes me feel small and makes the Lord’s world feel gloriously large. When painting outdoors, I seek to capture a special moment in time, a scene that depicts the beauty, essence, and uniqueness of that location. Through my art I hope to share my enjoyment of my rural region and inspire others to appreciate its unique beauty too.”
You can view more of Paula’s work at RuralHuesArt.com and Instagram.com/PaulaRoth.RuralHues.
Morning Fog on Pigram Line was painted as the crops were ripening in the fall. The golden fields covered with dew and fog were enchanting. The saturated reds and fuchsias have drawn hummingbirds to my palate which makes time stand still for a few seconds.
News
Saturday Selections – Oct. 25, 2025
Easiest way to save 175,000 Europeans a year
“Every year, around 1,300 Americans die from extreme heat. But in Europe, which has about double the population, 175,000 people die from extreme heat.” Why this huge difference? “…strict environmental regulations to help combat climate change…”
Christians are being encouraged – in the name of biblical stewardship – to sign on for the climate catastrophic agenda. It can be hard to know what to do, since the science is beyond most of us. But you can gauge the fruit of that agenda. Here we see how those trying to save the planet aren’t saving the people on it. So that’s not an agenda we should sign up for.
Ontario school taught third graders how to “get into drag”
We send our kids to Christians schools not, first of all, to shelter them, but rather to teach them to see the world as it really is – as God created it and sustains it.
But government schools are a danger we should shelter our kids from. Public schools indoctrinate children to see the world as it isn't – to see it as completely disconnected from God. And that's not enough for the government, as this report shows: they also want children to question their gender, and feel guilt, not for their sins but for their skin color.
Parents disrobe to make their point
The trans agenda has schools across this continent telling girls they need to be okay with boys in girls' locker rooms, changing in front of them, and watching them change. What we have here is adults refusing to protect girls.
So, in what seems to becoming a trend, three parents have gone to school board meetings and, while arguing against this ridiculous policy, disrobed to their underwear or bathing suit. In the first case, in September, the board shut down the meeting, too uncomfortable to continue, and isn't that exactly the point that mother, Beth Bourne, was trying to make? If the board can't take such discomfort, why are they subjecting girls to it? Then, in October, a couple of women did the same, undressing to their underwear, to make the same point.
Awkward? Certainly. But is it a sinful way to make a point? After all, God calls us to modesty (1 Tim. 2:9–10). But He has also used immodesty to make a point, having Isaiah walk around naked (or in no more than his underwear) for three years (Is. 20:2-4). God also calls on us to defend our children and take the hit for them (2 Cor. 12:14, 1 Thess. 2:7-9), modeled most clearly in what God had done for us (John 10:11). The school was set on humiliating children, and these parents were willing to be humiliated instead.
Neither school seems to have listened. We can only hope these brave parents will also have the sense to pull their kids out.
Too hot to be old (10 min. read)
There are moons, and planets, and even a former planet, that are way too hot to be 4.6 billion years old. Our solar system gives evidence of being a young one after all.
Conservative Anglicans have been liberated
The appointment of a female Archbishop of Canterbury has prompted conservative churches to formally split away.
Why girls are more susceptible to transgender indoctrination
Our kids, girls or guys, need to know that their teen struggles are common – at some point in their teens, everyone feels like a friendless loner who has something deeply wrong with them.
They need to know hear that from their parents so they don't start looking for answers on the Internet or elsewhere where they could hear their problem is that they were born in the wrong body. They need to hear from us that yes, they might be broken... as we all are. Thankfully, we can turn to God in our brokenness and in repentance, and He will be a Father to the lonely.
Today's Devotional
October 28 - Heretics
“As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.” - Titus 3:10-11
Scripture reading: Jude 1:1–25; Titus 3:9-11
Heretic is not a word you read often. There were plenty of heretics in church history, but we tend to think >
Today's Manna Podcast
Sleeping
Serving #1009 of Manna, prepared by D. VandeBurgt, is called "Sleeping" and is based on Psalm 4.
