Thursday, January 30, 2014

Landscape “Out of my comfort zone”

 

 

I really have to thank God for helping me through this particular painting.  This is what I love to do more than anything, but it’s been so long since I’ve tried.  I’ve been dancing all around it for quite awhile now.

And there were quite a few obstacles to overcome.

First, I sawed and put together the wood slats myself, so it’s not perfectly square.  And the slats don’t fit together smoothly.

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Then there were some places in the wood that, even though I love the grain showing through, were a bit unsightly and distracting.

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I just kept asking God to help me know what to do, help me stay relaxed and help me to know that it doesn’t have to be perfect.  Besides, I wondered how I could go wrong painting a picture with the beautiful colors and the creation He had made Himself.

I use photographs of actual places I found in magazines.  About five to be exact, and put them together to make the scene.  So I put a lot of studying into it before I even started painting.

I knew it wouldn’t be perfect and it isn’t.  I struggled down to the very last detail with that intense, anxious fear that someone would snarl their nose at it, because it wouldn’t be, “ perfect”.  Even with all of that, it began to come together, slowly.

From the hills in the back ground under the sky,

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and the tree line at the bottom of the rolling hills with the red barn,

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and the sweet country mountain road,

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to the bright orange tree in the foreground, I struggled.

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I wanted to add an element of surprise to it, something that made it mine, and I struggled with that too!  I thought someone would look at it and say, why, why would you do that?  But I did it anyway, I put glitter in spots, it made me so happy, I knew I had to do something else.

So I did, I put copper tacks across the top and across the bottom.  And that really made me happy. 

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And so my painting is done. I learned a lot and I have to say, God held my hand the whole way.  I thank Him for that, it made me feel that it was just as important to Him as it was to me.  He gave me the ideas and created the trees, hills and beautiful sky that inspired me.  He helped me through  all the fears I faced even including this very post where I am actually showing it and sharing about my lack of confidence.

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Thank you God for giving me the courage and the freedom to try, even down to the copper tacks.

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