Beautiful August

"August Beauty"
9X12"
Watercolor

This painting is actually from last year.  I believe I sent the original to my aunt, who had posted a challenge on Facebook.  She shared what she found beautiful about the month of August and asked others what they found beautiful about the month.  Down here in El Paso, I have come to enjoy and appreciate the rain storms that come in August.  The clouds have their particular beauty, and with everything being so flat it is easy to see the storms coming from a great distance.  It is certainly something that I never appreciated when I lived back East and experienced rain more frequently.

Concepts

"Concepts #3"
10X14"
Watercolor

It feels like for-EVER since I last posted something here! I have missed sharing art with others. It's not that I haven't wanted to post anything; I have merely been waiting for God's direction and timing for art projects. I'm not sure that I can say I have returned or that I will be posting regularly again, but for right now I have something that I can share.

God has taken me through quite a process in the last couple of years. In fact, my previous post was shortly after I moved out of my rented art studio and had sold the vast majority of my supplies. I thought it was just a downsizing. Then I felt the Lord directing me to get rid of all my previous artwork. It was a painful purging. Although I was able to give some of it away, most of my paintings and drawings ended up in the trash. I started to wonder if God was calling me to give up the art stuff for good.

See, I had all these nice ideas of how God was going to use my art. The only problem is, they weren't God's ideas. He had to take my nice little box of concepts and smash it to bits. Again, a painful experience, but very necessary. Now I wait for His leading and His inspiration. And that has lead to a much happier, much more successful art venture than would have happened had I pursued my own ideas.

Beauty in the Storm

"Beauty in the Storm"
12X16"
Watercolor

This is a picture that God gave me recently. I prayed before and during its painting, and I am hoping that it will minister to many people. I am grateful that He has allowed me to be His vessel in this way.

"...The Lord has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet."--Nahum 1:3 (NKJV)

I have been through quite a number of storms in my life during the past year, and I wish that I could say that they get easier to weather. They don't. But I have started to appreciate their beauty and power. Storms are sent to mold us and shape us into the purpose for which the Ultimate Artist created us. He wants to wash away the things in our lives that keep us from Him, and He wants to display His power in the midst of our situations to spark our worship of Him. It is not an easy process, but it is worth it if we let God do His work to bring us closer to Himself.

High Places

"High Places"
12X16"
Watercolor

I recently read the book Hinds' Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is wanting a deeper relationship with God. It is a beautiful allegory of a believer's spiritual journey as they follow Jesus. I couldn't help but think of the story as I was painting this mountain scene in a watercolor class. I absolutely love how it turned out, and I am so glad to have a picture to remind me of all the wonderful lessons in the story.

Me and My Shadow

Shadow Self
6.5X9"
Watercolor

I caught a glimpse of my shadow one day. I had just taken a shower and my hair was hanging down in an interesting way and my big fat nose was sticking out. I'm not sure why I found the shape of the shadow so interesting, but I made a quick sketch and then decided to paint it.

I had originally planned to make a series of progressively darker shadows against my face in profile. But then I decided that it might be more interesting to come face to face with my shadow. The sketch just looked like somebody staring off into space, and it bugged me a little bit. I found that this was a good exercise, trying to duplicate the shapes of the right-hand face in reverse.

I guess you could call this a kind of self-portrait, although I wasn't trying for a photo realistic depiction of my own face. The blue eyes and the curly, light brown hair are definitely my signature features. As for staring at my own shadow, I have to admit that I do contemplate the darker side of my being from time to time. We all have a darker side, one that we usually try to hide away from the rest of the world--secrets and thoughts that we wouldn't want anyone else to know about. I like to think about this darker side of myself as a reminder that I'm not as good as I'd like to think I am....or as good as I'd like other people to think that I am. Keeps me from getting too full of myself.

Back to Work--Part 1

"Lady in Waiting"
6.5X9"
Pen, ink, and watercolor

Now that my little noveling adventure is over, it's time to get back to work. I have a couple of projects that I put on pause while I wrote. This lovely little thing was one of them.

After testing several colors with this line drawing (see earlier "Ladies in Waiting" post), I decided to do something slightly different. I still wanted to paint the dress red, even though the dress that inspired this whole thing was black. But instead of sticking with a single color for the whole picture, I decided to work in some greens. I liked the effect much better than any of the colors I had used previously.

What I love most of all about this painting, though, is the happy little accident that occurred with the tree. When I started painting the leaves, I initially let some of the strokes go over the branches. I didn't like how that turned out once the paint dried, and I was afraid that I'd ruined the whole thing. However, I decided to go back over the trunk with another color. As I started to brush water over the branches in preparation for the new color, I noticed that the leaf strokes started to disappear and merge with the trunk color. Hah! There was no need to even mix up the new color. I already had the effect I wanted. So hurray for happy accidents!

Ladies in Waiting

"Lady in Waiting"--four drafts
8X10"
Pen, ink, and watercolor

My husband and I went out to a little shopping area near our town recently. It is a beautiful place that is full of inspiration for paintings and drawings. We didn't realize, however, that a huge festival taking place there during the very weekend we decided to go.

The place was packed, and there were so many people milling about that I couldn't even find a spot to sit and sketch. As we were walking around, though, a woman sitting on a bench caught my eye. She had a parasol and the way she was seated created an interesting shape in my mind. So when I got home, I drew a pen-and-ink sketch of what I could remember. Then I added a tree and added some decoration to her parasol. I wanted to add some watercolor, but I wasn't sure which colors to use.

Thank goodness for the marvels of modern technology. I made some copies of the sketch onto recycled paper, so I could experiment with some color combinations before I made the final painting. Above are the four ideas I came up with--it was so much fun! #1 was actually the last one I painted, but I think it comes from another painting idea of mine. #3 was interesting and left me with a lot of green paint, so I splashed the extra paint onto #2. I was going to come back and add more to #2, but I liked the minimalist effect of the color. #4 came from just trying something different. I have my favorites, and I think I know what I'm going to do now. But it might be interesting to see if anyone else has an opinion first.

Alligators, Crocodiles, Caimans

"Charlie"
8X10"
Watercolor

This is the time that I wish Steve Irwin, the crazy crocodile hunter guy, was still around. I know that I've heard explanations before on the difference between alligators, crocodiles, and caimans, but I can't remember a darn thing. I can tell you that I got the idea for this painting after I watched an interesting program on a particular species of cayman. The question of whether what I painted accurately depicts a caiman or not will have to be debated by reptilian experts. I just happened to like the scene of an alligator/crocodile/caiman floating along in the water with his eyes and snout just peeking out above the surface.

I decided to title the painting "Charlie" after a story that my husband told me. He had mentioned hearing about some kids that were swimming in some kind of pond or waterway in Florida. An adult saw that there was an alligator in the water and started yelling at the kids to get out. The kids seemed unconcerned with the giant reptile. Their casual response to the frantic adult? "Oh, that's Charlie. He's here all the time."

This Charlie has been with me for a few weeks now. I've been painting him slowly and carefully, letting the paint dry between the various layers. I'm usually not so patient in my painting, but Charlie helped me to see the benefits in it. Below, you can see Charlie in his early stage as a pen-and-ink sketch:

Card Games (continued)

"Card Games"
6X9"
Watercolor and ink

I just couldn't leave "Card Games" alone. Since it made such a nice black-and-white drawing, I had to experiment with color. After all, love and jealousy are very colorful emotions. I'm not sure which of these versions I like better, so I'm hoping that other people out there in cyberspace will contribute their opinions.