John Armistead, an ordained Presbyterian minister, is an award-winning artist, author, and journalist. He began formal studio training in Mobile when he was eight years old, working in pastels and oils. He continued art studies with two outstanding Mississippi artists, Homer Casteel Jr. in high school and Sam Gore in college, and also participated in master's classes taught by Everett Raymond Kinstler at the Art Student's League of New York, the National Academy of Design in New York city, and the Lyme Academy of Fine Art in Old Lyme, Connecticut. Armistead paints primarily in oil and watercolor. His subject matter ranges from figurative to landscape to still life. He has been especially drawn to older houses since childhood. "When I am painting one of those houses," he says,"I try to image who lived there, what was their story, their struggles and joys, how they survived." Hundreds of his paintings are exhibited in libraries, museums and businesses throughout the United States. His work is featured regularly on the HGTV program "Home Town". Armistead says, "For me, the creative processes of painting, writing, and preaching are all bound up in a single commitment to serve God and other people as best I can. I think there is a spark of divinity in every positive human creative ct." Although he uses plein air studies and reference photos, Armistead says as much as 80 percent of a painting comes from within, from pure imagination. "Imagination, of course, literally means 'Image-making'. It is fed by drawing from the deep reservoir of memory. A former kindergarten and high school teacher, he holds degrees from Mississippi College (BA, English), The University of Mississippi (MA, Classical Greek and Latin), Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin). He has also studied at the Graduate Theological Union of Berkeley and the Sorrento Linque International Language Institute in Sorrento, Italy. Armistead, who lives in Tupelo, has pastored churches in Mississippi, California, and Hawaii, and was formerly a religion journalist. He is currently pastor of Unity Presbyterian Church in Plantersville, MS.