Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Art: Perfectly Beautiful Flowers

 

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So what does beautiful mean?  Pleasing to the mind or pleasing aesthetically is one of the definitions I found.  Aesthetics (also spelled æsthetics and esthetics) is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of art, beauty, and taste, with the creation and appreciation of beauty.[1][2] It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes calledjudgments of sentiment and taste.[3] More broadly, scholars in the field define aesthetics as "critical reflection on art, culture and nature."[4][5]

Flowers seem to have a way of pleasing us with their beauty.  And with their perfect form (thanks to our Creator) they also help us realize how to appreciate beauty.  We can be a part of this in more than one way.  We can plant them and enjoy them as they come to life, we can pick them and use them to brighten and cheer up our surroundings, we can give them as presents, we can try to paint them and recreate their beauty, just looking at them though, brings a sense of hope to me.

They are delicate, yet they are strong.  They are perfect and all the different flowers and colors are perfect.  Perfectly beautiful, I guess, is how I would describe a flower.

So as I worked on this piece, I fell even more in love with flowers.  It is such a bright and welcoming piece.  It would cheer up any room it was hanging in.  And of course, being on this barn wood with all it’s history even makes it better for me.

Great thing about this piece is that, you won’t even sneeze when you look at it.  There’s more than one way to enjoy their beauty, even if you can’t have the real thing for one reason or another.

I started not to put color to it and this is what it looked like after drawing it with white acrylic paint and a brush.  I like the lacey look too, but the colors are more cheerful.  Cheerful and happy is what I am after in most everything I do.

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Flowers are pleasing to the mind, soothing to the soul and spiritually and emotionally stirring.  They are simply beautiful.

Hope you enjoyed looking at this piece.  Have a beautiful day.

This painting was done by me, Teresa Haynes Johnson, finished on April 21, 2014 and is acrylic on barn wood.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Art: On the Other Side

 

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This little piece is 5 3/4” H by 20” W, acrylic on barn wood.  I looked through several magazines looking for just the right ideas.  When I finally got tired of looking through all the pictures, I just kind of started with the green.  Then I went to the sky, the tree far in the field and then the fence.  So, apparently I picked up the ideas as I was looking through the photographs.  I knew what I wanted to do in the fore ground, everything else was a guessing game.  I just wanted flowers.

I am so happy God created such beautiful things in nature, if He hadn’t of created all these wonderful things, I’d have nothing to paint.  It seems that is all I like is flowers, butterflies, trees, the sky especially, animals, water….. all things nature.  And how can you go wrong with such beautiful subjects to paint from.

This particular piece of wood I’m told, did not come from a barn, but it came from a fence.  It’s nice wood.  Ricky Pardon gave it to me after he planed it.  It comes from here in Tennessee somewhere.  I’d like to know when it was built and exactly what it fenced in or out.  I’ve asked for that information, but hadn’t got it yet.

Have a wonderfully creative day!

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Art: Lighten Up a Bit!

 

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Tending to take things very seriously and getting into the details, this burlap canvas gives me the perfect base to lighten up a bit.

Seriously, there is not much way that I can see, that you can get involved with the details of what your painting.  I have tried to figure a way to get a little more detail in the petals of the flowers, the grass or even the trees, but thankfully I haven’t found it.

I’m glad I haven’t found it.  It gives me the ability to be more free and is teaching me to be a bit more loose with my pieces.  Which is something I am having to force myself to do, loosen up.

That also goes for other areas of my life.  I’m too serious.  I feel guilty when I laugh at something that is brought across in such a way to be funny, but it’s really a serious issue.

Can you picture Jesus laughing?  Surely He did.  Was He as serious as the master artist’s painted Him on canvas to be, all the time?  That’s the picture I see when I try to envision what He would do in a particular situation, that serious portrait of Him, that all of us in my generation grew up with.  I believe He did laugh and He enjoyed His Father’s creation.  I believe He laughed and smiled at the innocence of children.  And I can even see Him laughing at some of our mistakes and our lack of judgement in areas of our lives, that aren’t critical, but we think they are.

I have had to concentrate on loosing up and learning to enjoy life.  For so many years I was in a cult that taught, don’t, don’t, don’t.  But I have realized there are actually more do’s and more things to celebrate and be happy about, rather than constantly be looking over your shoulder afraid the devil (you know that little red thingy with horns and a pitch fork) was going to creep into your life somehow.

Loosen up, enjoy life, enjoy the creation that God made for us to enjoy.  That’s what I say to myself.  I’m sure there are others that have to tell themselves the same thing for one reason or another.


In Romans 8 it says, “…. to be spiritually minded is life and peace”.

Have a wonderful and creative day!

Monday, April 7, 2014

Art: He Smiled


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Took this painting into work one day to show the man who supplying the wood for me to paint on what I was doing with it.  He said he would like one.  I asked him the normal questions, what would you like for me to paint for you, do you have a photograph of something special and on and on I went with my questions.

As we were talking another man walked up and said I’d like to have a painting.  He is an older man that is probably past retiring age, but cannot afford to retire.  He works two jobs.  He has also had some severe challenges with his health recently.  I asked him my normal questions about what he might like to have painted. He didn’t have an answer for me, but said he would think about it.  He did however ask me how much it would cost.  I told him we’d talk about it later after he decided what picture he’d like me to paint.

 As the days went by he would stop by to say good morning and oil my machine for me, as he had always done. I would ask him if he had come up with any ideas for his painting and he would just look down toward the floor and shake his head, no.  Then one day he said to me that he would just like to have something painted by me.

Well, what an invitation to give a painting away.  What more did I need than that nudge God gives me.  So I began thinking about it.

Just a few days ago, he came by my machine, didn’t speak, didn’t even look up.  His head was hanging so low, it was obvious and concerned me, something was wrong.  As he made his rounds again later that day, I walked over to him and asked if he was feeling ok.  I commented that it was quite obvious something wasn’t right, he wasn’t smiling as he usually did.  He just looked up at me, still all slouched over and said, as I looked into his red, sad eyes, “Honey, my self esteem is just about gone, they have just about destroyed it”.  I wasn’t sure who, they, were, but it didn’t matter, he was hurt.

I took the painting to work with me again, the one he had already seen and first sparked his interest in wanting one. I told him I’d just like for him to have it, how much he meant to me and how much it would mean to me if he would accept it.

And he just smiled.  He took the picture and rode off on his little cart, smiling.    Even if the smile is just for a moment maybe that moment will come again and again whenever he looks at my painting.

So this painting is now hanging in the home of a man, I hardly know.  But knew enough to know that he needed compassion.

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Thank you God for the opportunity and privilege to make someone smile.