Creator of Colour (website only)
- Creator of colour, of tone and of tincture,
who took the blank canvas of emptiness’ space,
you drew in the tinges and tones of love’s picture,
and gave us a purpose, a plan, and a place. - You drew in the palate of earth, in your image,
the outline of Adam, the child of the dust,
the wonder of Eve, with your breath and your knowledge,
a canvas alive with the glory you brushed. - Yet choosing to wrest all control of your canvas,
we damaged, disrupted, did tarnish and taint
the artwork that love in creativeness gave us,
and shrouded and blotted the view of love’s paint. - However, the Son of the Great Artist, Jesus,
has entered earth’s picture, restoring God’s art,
and holding love’s palette, refurbished the canvas,
whose cradle and cross can restore every heart. - Great Artist, refurbish the work you have painted,
true Son of the Artist, renew what has peeled,
blest Spirit of Art, still repaint what is tainted,
Creator of colour, still colour your world.
Words: Jesse Clapperton
Metre: 12.11.12.11 (Amphibrachic)
Suggested tunes: Though this metre is not very much used in our hymn books, there are possibilities across a number of different sources, often melodies that have a traditional music/folk feel. In Singing the Faith itself, there is The road and miles to Dundee (StF 604), or from the predecessor Methodist hymn book, Hymns & Psalms, try the more formal St. Catherine’s Court (H&P 660).
Elsewhere, The bright wind of heaven (Church Hymnary 4 #607) works well, and the traditional tune “Ash Grove” takes the metre 12.11.12.11.D, which is easily adaptable for Jesses’s words. Jesse also suggests the tune Kremser as an option – you can listen to this on YouTube.
Most of these tunes will be attractive to younger members of the congregation, especially if a few instruments are at hand for them to provide percussive accompaniment.
Ideas for use
Here’s a hymn that simply insists on creativity in worship – a great splash of art-making, and not just from children and young people. What can we all bring to worship that reflects our praise or sense of God in a visual way?
As suggested above, this is also an opportunity to use a tune that will work intergenerationally – something from a folk tradition, perhaps.
Maybe plan a complete Arts Sunday, combining the visual arts with music (see some music-themed hymns below). And if you’re nearing Christmas, how about some dance as well, with Clare Stainsby’s Dancing Magnifcat?
More information
For Methodists, who were famously “born in song” (StF 21), the use of music as an analogy for God’s creativity is fairly familiar (For the music of creation, StF 74, or The God who sings, StF 714). Likewise, music may be a metaphor as well as a medium for our praise of God (Come, let us sing to the One, StF 2, or When, in our music, God is glorified, StF 731).
Arguably, the visual arts are less visible in our hymns – but if that’s a debatable suggestion, then certainly few texts explore the metaphor of God-as-artist in such a sustained way as here.
As someone who came to hymn writing in response to (or “escape” from) the Covid pandemic, Jesse Clapperton has quickly developed a gift for homing in on a single image or idea and exploring it from many angles (see Jesus, sower of the seed, website only). In Creator of colour, he traces the arc of God’s imagining, from the divine creation out of “the blank canvas of emptiness’ space” through humankind wresting control of God’s canvas (v3) and Jesus’ restorative life and death (“holding love’s palette”, v4). The hymn closes with a clearly trinitarian prayer to the “creator of colour” to “still colour our world”.
Jesse Clapperton
Jesse lives in rural northern Ontario, Canada. He began writing what he calls "hymnic poetry" at the beginning of the Covid pandemic "as a way to escape what was happening around me", only to discover that the process "ended up being an enriching experience that involved much self-learning". Also see Jesse's The Gardener plants eastward a garden (website only).