“We should be ‘anxiously engaged’ in good causes and leave the world a better place for having lived in it .” 

Joseph Smith Presidential Candidate 1844
Artist Michael Bedard



I used this same flag first in the painting below  of the Laying of the Nauvoo Temple.

  “We should be ‘anxiously engaged’ in good causes and leave the world a better place for having lived in it .” 

Joseph Smith Presidential Candidate 1844
Artist Michael Bedard



I used this same flag first in the painting below  of the Laying of the Nauvoo Temple.

Joseph Smith martyred on June 27, 1844, at the Carthage Jail, ending his brief presidential campaign. Although he did not gain redress for the wrongs suffered by the Saints in Missouri, his campaign had brought much favorable public attention to the Church. Many years later, President Ezra Taft Benson said, Joseph Smith’s presidential campaign had sought to make the United States a better place, not only for the Latter-day Saints, but for all Americans. http://josephsmithsr.com/

also if you would like to purchase a print of this go to my web sight store/Patriotic 

www.bedardfineart.com Smith martyred on June 27, 1844, at the Carthage Jail, ending his brief presidential campaign. Although he did not gain redress for the wrongs suffered by the Saints in Missouri, his campaign had brought much favorable public attention to the Church. Many years later, President Ezra Taft Benson said, Joseph Smith’s presidential campaign had sought to make the United States a better place, not only for the Latter-day S

Nauvoo Temple Corner Stone Ceremony 1841   

artist Michael Bedard

 The sixth of April , 1841, was a memorable day in the history of Nauvoo. That day the corner stones of the great  temple which God had commanded his people to build were laid. Early that morning the sisters presented to Joseph  Smith and the Nauvoo Legion a silk flag with 27 stars representing each state in the union at that time. This flag was saluted with canon fire and than accompanied the Nauvoo legion as it made its solemn sacred march up mauholland street  to the laying ceremony. 

General Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith Sr. & Lucy mack Smith Noble Parents

Joseph Smith Sr. & Lucy mack Smith 
Noble  Parents

Their are not to many good portraits the sweet couple who gave so much to the world. This painting is a way to honer them and  remember them.  

I painted these Noble Parents while living in Nauvoo Illinois.

I used some very good friends of mine use would give the shirt of their back to someone in need.

As always I believe what you are on the inside shows up on the outside when doing portraits. So I picked the Andersons who live in Nauvoo.  

Noble Parents 

Joseph Smith Sr. 

                     These nobel parents, Joseph smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith  raised the young boy Joseph Smith. Jr. , who become the instraument in the Lord’s hand to retore the, “ The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints”. 

      Joseph Smith Jr. wrote concerning his father: “He was a great and a good man. The envy of knaves and fools was heaped upon him. . . . He was of noble stature and possessed a high, and holy, and exalted, and virtuous mind. . . . I love my father and his memory; and the memory of his noble deeds rests with ponderous weight upon my mind, and many of his kind and parental words to me are written on the tablet of my heart.”

      In a revelation given through Joseph Smith four months after the death of his father, the Lord refers to “my aged servant Joseph Smith, Sen., who sitteth with Abraham at his right hand, and blessed and holy is he, for he is mine” (D&C 124:19).

 Lucy Mack Smith

      After six years of marriage, Lucy Mack became very ill, was diagnosed with “confirmed consumption,” Lucy did not feel prepared for death ...  She spent the night pleading with the Lord to spare her life so she could bring up her children  and “be a comfort” to her husband. She vowed that, if her life was spared, she would serve God with all her heart, whereupon she heard a voice advising her, “Seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. Let your heart be comforted; ye believe in God, believe also in me.” From that point on, Lucy began a long search for a religion that would teach her the way of salvation. 

New! Brother's Keeper Poster

Brother's Keeper 1856

This is one of my favorite stories I have ever done. The scrap shot for this painting was done on location of the sweet water. some day I'll tell the whole story of what I went through to get this image.

Artist  Michael Bedard Art copyrighted ©

  

  James Kirkwood, an eleven-year-old convert from Scotland, struggled across the frozen prairie 

with his widowed mother and brothers. While his mother attended her crippled son and the handcart,

James was responsible for his six-year-old brother, Joseph. 

      A snowstorm with icy winds strung out the caravan of beleaguered saints. James carried Joseph through rivers of ice, mud, and snow.Ascending the last miles up Rocky ridge with little Joseph on his back, James arrived late at Rock Creek camp. Here, James Kirkwood succumbed to the extreme 

exposure of the day and breathed his last for the love of his little brother.

He was buried in a common grave with thirteen others who perished that night. Little Joseph 

eventually made it into the Salt Lake Valley and went on to become a beloved Mormon Bishop of a large and grateful Salt Lake ward.

For purchase go to web store or gallery in saint George Utah.

Jacobs Ladder

I will write a little about this tomorrow. Hi I am back.

I would love to do the full version of this some day when I get a commission I will. Their are a few points on this I would like to share. The ladder is a humble ladder held together with the threads of Abrahams Faith, passion for priesthood blessing of the ancient prophets.

The Lord desires all of his children. equal blessings of eternal marriage and family as I mentioned below. The second is the rungs start out a little crooked but straighten as we learn to obey His will and not our own. and the third is the ladder gets more narrow not because we are narrow minded who  follow Christ  but because we have more light and are less prone to wander into darkness and misery.

Promises of Abraham Saint George Temple 2015

Promises of Abraham Saint George Temple
Artist  Michael Bedard ©

Genesis 15:1,2,5 & 6 1

  After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. 2 And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless... ? 5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. 6 And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

Artist’s Thoughts

On the left of this painting, I depict the Lord’s great promise to Abraham of a posterity as numerous as the stars in the sky. The Saint George temple at night, is a beautiful white, reminding us to be pure in thought, always honest and of pure intent. Those who enter the temple make sacred covenants to keep the Lords commandments. In return, they are promised that the Lord will bless them with eternal marriage and family relationships. This is all possible through the atonment of Jesus Christ, which makes us clean and fit to return back into His presence, once we complete our mortal probation and stewardship to build up the kingdom of God on the earth. The stairs are symbolic, like Jacob’s ladder. As we make each covenant with the Lord, and keep it, we move closer to heaven 
and find greater joy and strength.  

Michael Bedard working on Commissioned Painting Promises of Abraham This painting was completed about Christmas time 2015. Limited and open edition prints will in the store and webstore starting Monday. I had such fun working on This Painting I think it makes a great companion to " A Miraculous Request to Pres. Wilford Woodruff 1877" I completed in 2011.

A miraculous Request To Pres. Wilford Woodruff 1877 ç

Young Martha Washington

I made this entry for a friend at my Gallery store/ studio  in Saint George

Martha a very private and refined woman, often went out of her comfort zone for the love of her husband and to encourage those serving with him at valley Forge.

Here is the Quote requested of the great woman.Martha Washington:

-- I am still determined to be cheerful and to be happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned, from experience, that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances. We carry the seeds of the one or the other about with us, in our minds, wheresoever we go.

A Miraculous Request To Wilford Woodruff 1877
Martha Washington one of the eminent woman