Lucy McTier’s portrait “What Would Mary Do?” communicates both her belief in the sanctity of life and her unwavering faith in God. The portrait was based on three different images and was also the inspiration for a poem.

Lucy McTier is a soft-spoken, attractive woman with an uncanny ability to capture life and truth on canvas with a palette and brush in her hands. Her passion for life and her uncompromising convictions are often expressed in her exquisite artistic renderings.

For example, her “pro-life” painting entitled “What Would Mary Do?” is both delicately portrayed and yet compellingly persuasive. The beautiful work of art communicates not only her belief in the sanctity of life, but exemplifies her unwavering faith in God.

“The earliest memories I have,” McTier recalled, “include gazing at the twilight sky at the age of three or four and being moved in my inmost parts at the thought of a Creator God who was at least as big as that sky and as wondrous as the stars that sparkled there.”

McTier grew up in Waycross and attended First Methodist Church, but when she was 13 years old she went with a friend to see the movie The Cross and the Switchblade and walked down the aisle of the theater to trust Christ as her Savior. She met her husband, David, in college and when they were married she joined Wrens Baptist Church, where David was a member.

In recounting her baptismal experience McTier stated, “I was baptized at age 24 along with our then ‘in utero’ son. I was awash with tears at the realization that I had the privilege to be submerged into the death and life of Jesus Christ. Having been sprinkled was great, but being identified with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection was breathtaking.”

The McTiers have two sons, Jace and Ty, who were home schooled by their mother. McTier relates, “What a wonderful and enriching experience that was. It taught my children to appreciate each other, to investigate many interests, to learn to play the guitar and the keyboard, and work on their own studies at their own pace. I was determined to help them become all God wanted them to be.”

Jace McTier

McTier has turned a childhood passion into a career. The “Choose Life” painting, left, came about due to a long-held deep conviction that all life is precious.

Ty, age 20, is a sophomore on a baseball scholarship at Chattahoochee Valley Community College in Phoenix City, Ala. Jace, the older of the two sons, has chosen to follow in his mother’s footsteps and is also an exceptional portraitist.

Making a career of art was somehow in Lucy’s DNA. She declared, “From the first time I traced my own hand I was hooked on drawing with a pencil. At the very young age of seven, I had aspirations to make a career of art. By age nine my mother had Lucille Martin of Jacksonville, Fla. paint a portrait of me. Mrs. Martin gave me the opportunity to paint in her own studio. I was entranced … working on a painting in a real studio was amazing.”

McTier painted a pastel portrait in college, enjoyed the work it required immensely, and began to paint portraits for profit. Her first commissioned portrait was of three children in pastel for thirty-five dollars.

She disclosed, “I determined then to draw as best I could, no matter what the price of the work. I still try to do my best with each commission God sends my way. My favorite verse along those lines is Colossians 3:23: ‘And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.’”

Meeting a president

McTier now has more than 350 paintings in public and private collections. “One day, David, my mentor, my husband, and friend challenged me to think of an unreachable goal and go after it,” she explained. “He asked, ‘What is your dream?’

Jace McTier

Her first commissioned portrait sold for $35 and led to other painting opportunities for Lucy McTier in her studio, right. Former President Ronald Reagan personally received a McTier painting of himself on horseback in 1985.

“I would like to paint President Reagan … especially if I could paint him on horseback,” McTier replied.

So, in 1985 the McTiers wrote President Reagan and soon received an 8” by 10” photo of him on horseback. “As soon as I opened the white envelope, we immediately left our studio to have a cup of coffee in Peggy’s Restaurant to celebrate,” McTier revealed. “I painted a 24” by 36” oil painting from that photo and with the help of local politicians and friends, had the invitation to present it to him in the Oval Office.

“David and I, along with our four-year-old son, Jace, took off to Washington to meet with Representatives Matt Mattingly and Roy Roland and Senator Sam Nunn to deliver President Reagan’s painting. The door to the Oval Office opened and the hall flooded with light as the gracious president strode toward us in a dark, immaculately tailored suit. Our tow-headed son shook the president’s hand and I found myself greeting him with a small kiss on his cheek.”

Lucy added, “After shaking David’s hand, he walked up to the painting, touched the horse’s nose and spoke to it in Spanish. He visited with us for thirteen minutes and we wrapped up the meeting. He treated us like family.

“We knew then why he was president. I admired his willingness to speak of the Lord in public and told him so. The painting is now in the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif.”

In addition to gaining favor with one of our presidents, McTier has gained favor with the pro-life movement in our state and nation. She asserted, “As a teenager my mind was made up as to where I stood on abortion. In a classroom the year Roe vs. Wade was made into law, my classmates and I debated the idea. I could not imagine killing a living soul. I determined then, in high school, that I would never ‘choose’ that way.”

Three years after Lucy and David were married the call came from the doctor’s office that her pregnancy test was positive. She avowed, “I jumped for joy into David’s arms. We had wanted a child so badly. Soon we beheld what God had begun in us – our little boy. What a miracle! I wanted others to feel that close to God, to know how intricately we are ‘knit together in the womb.’”

Throughout her life McTier has encouraged and counseled friends and acquaintances to choose life and resist the temptation to have an abortion. Several years ago she even decided to express her deep pro-life convictions on canvas. As a lifelong admirer of Salvador Dali’s painting style, she began to paint a surrealist work of art depicting our present society’s pro-choice deception.

The painting is powerful and provocative, but Lucy observed, “It was really not very appealing to young women, and so I decided to paint something that was more appealing, something that would capture the interest of young women.”

Jace McTier

McTier began her career painting portraits of children. She and her husband, David, have two children, Jace and Ty.

A message comes together

McTier continued, “A good friend of ours had just given us a small photo of her holding her baby, Adam. The child looked as if he was looking on the face of God. I was awe-struck and asked permission to use the pose in a painting and she granted our request. At the same time we had just returned from a photo shoot for a portrait in Amelia Island, Fla. and had some thought-provoking photos of a young woman on the beach.”

With the two photos in hand McTier began the painting of “What Would Mary Do?” incorporating both the portrait of the mother and child as well as the photo of the young woman at the beach. Another photo of a California sunset sent by David’s uncle was used to provide a background for the painting. The rays of the sunset appropriately symbolize light and life.

McTier related, “When I began to paint the lower portion of the canvas, I felt I needed to paint something in the water to shed light on the true meaning of the painting. I had told my prayer partner, Benita, that I was searching for something to say in the painting. She called and told me, ‘I’ve got it. Choose Life!’

“While I was talking to Benita, a neighbor who rarely calls us on the phone also called and said, ‘Choose Life! That is what you need to put in that painting.’ That gave me chill bumps. If that was not a confirmation, I don’t know what is.”

Lucy McTier is a woman of charm and grace, a dedicated wife and mother, a remarkably gifted portraitist, a staunch pro-life advocate, and one of our Georgia Baptist treasures.

Lucy McTier, the artist, has written a poem with the idea of helping the viewer hear the thoughts of the girl in the painting

What Would Mary Do?

Catch these streams of light in your tiny hand, little one.
Do they illuminate your small eyes?
Will you remember this talk we had, my child?
Will your tiny heart race at our first kiss?
Will you know that we have begun
A fresh start together?

What if you never see these dancing waves
Or run laughing into the breakers?
Would you forgive me?
I would have to wait
A lifetime
To know.
Surely I cannot wait that long!
What did Mary do?
She, like me, was with child.
And alone
When she knew, did she shed a tear?
But her baby was sent from God ...

The sea whispers.
We must make a date to dance
Here in the sand.
I must see the blue of the deep
And spray of the sea in your eyes.
As you cry for me –
As you cry for me.
For me.