Thursday, February 27, 2014

Art: Challenges

 

DSCF1787

 

I began to think I had bit off more than I could chew,  I don’t know if I’m just tired of working on this or if I’m done.  At this moment, I would say, done!

This was a challenge for me from the start.  I had to practice patience.  Most of the time I like to work on things that produce results quickly or I lose interest.  But I thought this was worth it, so I continued on, struggling though, in fact, I almost put it aside.

This is my precious barn wood I have been wanting to get to try painting on for quite a long time now.  But I couldn’t just sit down and start painting on it, I found that out on the first day I tried.  If I wanted to use the rough side I had to prepare the surface first.  I had to make a special trip to get clear gesso.  After coat one, which is suppose to dry completely before coat two, I waited.  That night I put coat two on.  The next morning I sanded and put coat three on.  I waited till I couldn’t wait any longer and began painting.  It’s quite remarkable what a little patience will get you.  The surface was just like I needed it.  Still a bit rough, but still smooth enough for me to try it out.  The clear gesso didn’t affect the barn wood look to much, you can still feel and see the wood design behind my painting, which is what I wanted.

Being self taught, I struggle somewhat with just how to go about everything, so I thought since I put so much in preparing my canvas that I should probably give each step some extra thought.  Even though I can see things I’d like to change, I was pleased with the whole experience, except that it took me 2 and 1/2 days to complete the entire process.

Which made me think, can you imagine the patience that God has to have with each one of us.  But He loves us enough to keep on working with us.  Some of us (me in particular) take so many wrong turns before we ever get it!  One after the other, after the other.  I can imagine God rolling His eyes and shaking His head, but He doesn’t do that, He just loves us and continues spinning His potter’s wheel until we get it.

Thank you Lord for helping me with my lack of patience so I could complete this painting.  I was hoping that in someway  you might be glorified through this effort.  That would be the best thing ever.

See the steps this painting went through:

 

DSCF1779 (800x366)                          DSCF1781 (800x348)

 

DSCF1784 (800x358)                        DSCF1786 (800x348) 

 

                                             DSCF1787 (800x329)

 

Hope you like my painting on barn wood and thanks for visiting my page!

Monday, February 24, 2014

It’s the Simple Things

 

DSCF1776

 

Now I know this might not excite you, but it excites me quite a bit.  I love to paint pictures, but I am just not to excited about painting on canvas.  So I thought maybe I would try wood.   I picked up some wood prepared for painting at the store and figured out that wood was definitely the thing I wanted to paint on.  But still, there was something that just didn’t satisfy me.  So I looked further. 

After putting out the word at work that I was looking for some weathered wood, a month or two  went by, several said they had some and would bring it to me, finally I had someone come through.  Now, I actually have real barn wood in hand and it’s like Christmas all over again for me.

Honestly, it felt like a gift from God.  And it is literally!  When painting on this wood that actually came from an old building of some sort, I think about all the years it’s been around, all the folks that have possibly handled it and now it’s mine to pass on to someone else.

Using this old wood as a canvas for my art is perfect.  God created this wood, He grew the tree, He formed the lines within the grain and it just puts me in the right frame of mind to start painting a scene of something He created, a beautiful landscape, a skyscape or seascape or flower.

It’s the simple things that God has given us all that seem to go on without notice that intrigues me.  Each small line in a grain of wood, all the different butterflies, the clouds in the sky, a puddle of water with little pebbles scrattered here and there, a gentle gust of wind out of nowhere on a windless day, a single flower standing up just a bit taller than the others.

Such simple, beautiful and miraculous wonders that speak of God’s Love for us.  Thank you Lord for showing me You love even me!  If we would just take the time to notice, He whispers to our hearts every moment of every day about how much He loves us.

Monday, February 17, 2014

When God Nudges–Don’t Hesitate

 

DSCF1774 (625x800)

 

This is an illustration I have wanted to do for several years.  I have started a couple of times and each time I went wrong with it somewhere and just never finished.  Last week I broke out the pencils and was successful with a drawing of my boots.  So I decided to try this again.

It has a special meaning to me.  It’s an illustration of a lesson God walked me through.

I seem to always be thinking, coming up with neat ideas, but up until this lesson I rarely ever acted on any of the ideas I had.  Course, I know that as many ideas as I have, it would be impossible to act on all of them, but this idea was different.

There was much tribulation in my home with my children.  My daughter and I were at odds.  Just so happens I was taking a class at church called “One Month to Live” based on a book written by Kerry and Chris Shook. It was hard to concentrate on the class with things at home like they were.  But this one particular night, we were talking about acting on the things you want to do.  After all what if you were told you only had one month to live?  But I’d always had some excuse for not acting on my ideas, not enough money, not enough time, they would think it was stupid and on and on.

The idea?  Send my daughter roses at school on Valentine’s Day and tell her I love her.  I almost backed out as I was driving home because I was afraid she would be laughed at by her friends when they found out the roses were from her mother, not a boyfriend.  But I did it anyway.  The next day at work I made the call, ordered the flowers and said thank you Lord for this idea and thank you Lord for helping me not to back out.

I received a thank you from my daughter and this story along with it.  At school that day the flowers were to arrive, others were being called to come to the office because they had been sent flowers.  My daughter made the comment to her friend that she wished someone would send her flowers. No one had ever sent her flowers.  Next person called, was my daughter.  I am sure that no one knew how significant that was to me, knowing that had it not been for my Lord, I would have backed out of that idea and completely missed that moment.  It meant so much to me and proved to me just how much He loves me and wants me to be happy.  I think our Father does this to all of us all the time.  He gives us ideas and wants us to follow His lead.  How many opportunities have you missed by not acting on an idea, an idea that God Himself probably placed in your heart and on your mind.

When God nudges, don’t hesitate, He loves you.