(A portion of Rosemarie Adcock’s painting ‘Feeding the 500’)
As you can see, the billboard with its elongated shape allowed only for a section from the original painting. The billboard section includes Jesus with the doves, along with other disciples handing out food, and some birds and fish flying through the air.
The original painting depicts one of the most beloved accounts of the miracles of Jesus, the feeding of the 5000.
One of the artist’s main goals with this painting was to paint utter joy. What a celebration it had to be, to see Jesus take the few pieces of food brought to Him, a couple of loaves of bread and fish from a young boy, and transform it before everyone’s eyes.
Jesus gave thanks, and then had the disciples distribute the food to the 5000 hungry people who were there at the end of a long day of teaching.
It is thought that the 5000 people were the number of men, in addition to their wives and children, all who ate the loaves and fish that day.