Doesn’t this look like fairytale land? This is in Utah, Nat. Park where the red rocks are so overpowering, The reason why I toned down the actual colors in Photoshop of my plein air (open air) oil painting. Most of the painting I had to do at the cabin, because standing with a fierce cold wind blowing, and having the canvas in one hand, and a brush in the other, while taking out the paints out of the tubes became too complicated.
Love how the sun shapes and also distorts:) The Grapevine, in between Los Angeles and Sacramento Sky Watch, Der Natur Donnerstag
Agapanthus, or commonly called the Blue Nile flower. FOTD, Garden Affair, Floral Fri Foto
(Ceramic round plates Art Market in Georgetown, TX) Makro Tex., Wordless Wed.
Love this see through roof to prettily enclose the botanical garden in Balboa Park San Diego One Word Sun
Posted before for a Thurs. Door post, with many reflections:) Weekend Reflection
Correct me if I am wrong, but most may have no idea what it means to be a painter. Art is often associated with a fun Saturday outing with a group of people trying out new techniques, or go to a pretty place to do a plein air (open air scene).
It is true, the plein airs are at a pretty place, and in the beginning, I was in a group of beginners, but when they changed the free lessons to paid lessons in Yosemite Nat. Park, I have painted alone.
Most of my 24 x 24 inch and bigger, have been painted in front of an audience or alone. The two 9×7 feet, and one 10 x 17 feet have been painted with no one in sight, except for my hubby. It’s not a complaint, just a fact.
For me, in many instances the preparation involved the development of an idea, a vision, a news event or situation. In many cases prayer was involved, if it pertained to a certain truth I needed to display. Actually, for me this is the most emotional, sometimes agonizing part that I beforehand had no knowledge of at all. Now, if I would be a landscape painter, this would only be limited to questions of design.
Maybe you begin to understand that the last part brings one in a certain lifestyle and schedule.
When the kids were still at home, I began to do the “thinking” part during the night. Still, if I really want to focus and try out a new thing, I still may choose the night. Painting becomes a thing you go to bed with and wake up with.
Then the expense. Since I have retired I have had to curb my expenses of canvases, brushes, paints, gadgets. All these things have made me wonder why I kept the most important part of my life out of my blog, and decided to make a painting or something art related as my first in my posts😎
These violets have been blooming all winter … wonder when they take a rest! FOTD, Floral Fri Foto
These windows reveal mysterious reflections Weekend Relfection
About to fall over? Makro-Tex, Wordless Wed., DND
It is such an anomaly for anyone in the Netherlands to own a chainsaw that our son who lives there, asked his dad to send a photo:) This was when we lived in the Californian mountains. The next thing would have been a gun – kidding!!! Even though all of neighbors have one, lol (they are veterans) But we always get this question from our Dutch friends:)
Sized up (or down) refers here to measurements of canvases rather than someone watching if they can take you out or not! Somehow a 24 x 24 inch canvas is very easy for me to fill. The community in Laguna Niguel, California had this art department that organized evenings where you could do your favorite kind of art. Music, writing, poetry, painting, etc. I saw this poet, with a green velvet jacket sitting on the floor. Deeply involved in her work, because she had no idea I was painting her.
Looking in retrospect, the design with a strong diagonal line upward was so effective, that I used it for another painting where an angel was helping out.
Green would not be the effective color here, so I painted her with a red jacket. Also, sitting on the floor would give the idea of casual, but she was anything but that – very intense.
This is what I imagined. She had the feather (more romantic) of a writer, and numerous poems were flowing out if her hand. I imagined she had angelic help from heaven who guided and protected her.
Anything about the process of art make me happy! Makro-Tex
Missing the deer in my previous backyard Der Natur Donnerstag
Even numbers are more restful to the eye. That is a reason why designers (and painters) place things often off kilter or uneven.
One Word Sunday
FOTD, Wordless, Fri Floral Foto
Am sure the pool is an attraction for this store in Fredericksburg! Originally a German settlers town, circa 1950. Still many beer joints and German street names Travel Tue., Weekend Reflection
This rock (or even bunker) is a place of destiny, purpose and provision. Holds the keys to one’s life, purpose for which one was born, as well as a hide out, or safe place. This sky, rife with revelation where windows of opportunities appear. This is a place where wild horses run to.
Not yet domesticated to man’s rules and commands. Always found horses to have something regal. They have a personality, as an owner quickly discovers. Horses are known for their speed.
While panting this, the latter came to mind, and is Jeremiah’s talk – a prophet (Jeremiah chap 12) with God in which he asks why the ways of the wicked had prospered. Why … why….? God answers him, “If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses?” Then goes on to say that the whole land has been made desolate, because “no man lays it to heart” (no one cares about it), and finishes with, “after I have uprooted them, I will again have compassion on them and bring each one to his inheritance…”
Something happened while I was painting this in Laguna Niquel for an audience, that gave this painting even more meaning. There are always new people, so I did not pay much attention when I saw a man in the audience I had not seen before, who had traveled more than 5 hours to be there.
In the next weeks I gathered the back story why he was so taken with this painting. He had expressed that “everything in this painting spoke to him.” He had had a tough year behind him (something to do with recovering from addictions). Needless to say he had a special connection with horses. A few weeks later his wife contacted us, to buy a print of this painting for his birthday.
It is humbling to have heard this painting helped someone come out the mud of his situation and set him in the freedom and love of God he was looking for.
A reality check: it took me three weeks of sketching, before I could paint these horses. But it was worth it!
Weekly SmilLe
SCROLL ALL THE WAY DOWN TO DAN’S THURSDAY DOORS
We passed this building – I liked the tower. The wall does not look lie it fits. Because of the high bushes have no idea what kind of building is. One Word Sunday: odd, Makro-Tex- February
Granted, I am half a year too early, but I felt like blue flowers this week – the state flower of Texas, bluebonnets. But the park we saw these little blue beauties was 5 minutes from our previous house in Mid-California. FOTD. Garden Affair, Travel Tue., Floral Fri Foto
Sipping on my cup of coffee at Peet’s Coffee patio, I jolted into the reality of the moment that I did not need looking for a reflection, I saw one right in front of me – yay! Weekend Reflection.
And friendly skies from the Californian forest where I lived before. Sky Watch
Painted this at the Mission in North California in front of an audience. This story of Luke, the physician, tells about TWO boats, not one (like I always thought)! Jesus asked Peter if he could use his boat to talk to the multitudes on the beach.
After that, Jesus said to Peter to go and fish. Peter protested, But we just fished all night, and caught nothing, “But if you INSIST, ….” (can you hear what he was thinking? Excuse me, you’re not a fisherman, you’re a carpenter. You don’t know anything about fishing!) but still, he did it.
What ended up happening, was that Peter waved for his buddies in the other boat, to come help them, and both boats filled up with so much fish, that these were about to sink.
What was so amazing to me is that when we decide to eat humble pie, we discover why God said something. It is for MORE than we expected.
Knew that this painting would be a big job, because I intended to paint a multitude of fish, slithering and moving next to each other, in the nets. This is where I began to paint. Next, I painted the fishermen involved. Each with another sweater, facial expression and positioning of hands. That was fun. But most fun was to let my imagination go with the sails of two boats and apply my technique of light rays.
Much interest was shown for this painting. Someone came up and told that he had had a dream, not too long ago. When he looked at the platform and saw what I was painting, he realized it was his dream!
Wrote this poem Aug. 2019 and happened to see it in my journal and added it to give you some ideas why colors are significant.
Colors Matter
All the colors come flying out of My hand for you to war with they speak the decrees I have sent over the land the war has already been won and My angels dance and sing songs of deliverance
For I am setting my people free to become my army, to become My witness together we will put the enemy to flight They will be scattered, confusion will ensue and will kill each other off.
Be on the right side, behind Me I will do away with the ones who think they can handle Me. You will be protected come what may.
Last weeks I have been spending much time to update the journals of my paintings on my REAL SLATE table top (so heavy, only hubby can take it off). This is when I found the above painting back without a written process. People who are interested should be able to look up how it developed and my views about it. One Word Sun – real
Love how the background turned out so painterly. FOTD, Fri Floral Foto
Lovely Colors Weekly Smile, Makro-Tex, Wordless
Rain, rain, rain. The upside is green grass:) Der Natur Donnerstag
Not what it seems The people in this booth …. well not this booth, but the row of booths behind this one:) PhotoAWeek
Between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. Never actually winter, but the skies are more clear, and the fog lasts almost till noon. The mountains have really this chocolate brown color! Sun. Best, Weekend Reflection
Deleted most of the phone lines, but left the pole, which is characteristic for this landscape in Amador County in California. Sky Watch
SCROLL ALL THE WAY DOWN for THURS. DOORS this week!
What a heritage believers have in the cross. (this is not a painting:)) Here, on a wooden background of the door or my big art studio when we lived in N. California One Word Sunday, Weekly Smile
It has been cold, close to zero, but I wished snow would fall. Often, like in my previous back yard! Makro-Tex: Weather
One of the many orchids in the botanical building in Balboa Park, San Diego FOTD. Garden Affair, Floral Fri Foto And below, since I needed a wordless capture, a small bridge in the Huntington Garden Library looking so compelling that I included it in one of my paintings.
Sundays Best, Wordless Wednesday
Peering in one of the windows of a historical building in Old Town Sacramento made for a very interesting reflection. Travel Tue, Weekend Reflection
When living in Northern California, I could take sky pics every day. It was seldom a blue sky without any pattern. Sky Watch
Already last year in Fall I noticed my approach/style in painting had changed. Not surprising. Had moved to another state, people are different in Texas than in California, the culture is not as rushed. What threw me more for a loop was that also the content of my paintings seemed to have changed.
Had to think and struggle with that for a while, before I was ready to make this visible to you. Even though I always have been a big proponent of truth, you may see the subject is now not displayed in a “neutral” way. If you don’t know what “mene mene tekel” means and to whom it was said, you may have missed this change.
The king had become very distraught when a hand began to write this on the wall (no it was not with a feathered pen) and his advisors had no clue. Someone knew Daniel who had served the king’s grandfather, brought him in. Mene mene tekel means, “You have been weighed, and you have been found lacking (wonting). This night the kingdom will be taken away from you,” Daniel the prophet said to the king who thought he could use the dishes from the temple (which are by the Jews considered as very holy), for his guests at his party.
Maybe king Belshazzar had no idea which consequences there were to this act?
Not a chance. Daniel started out by saying, “You know that God had your grandfather King Nebuchadnezzar roaming around as a beast (a lion) with hair on its back, living outside, eating grass with claws for seven years, before his mind came back to him.” Then, Daniel proceeded to tell what the meaning was of what had suddenly appeared on the wall. That very night an enemy kingdom took over, and Belshazzar died.
Blooming baskets – cheerfully bringing things in perspective. Whatever this year will bring, I choose to be determined to bloom! And I won’t allow it to intimidate me when I see bare branches like below. FOTD, the Garden Affair, Floral Fri Foto
This fall and winter the grass has remained green in Texas since we had much green. Of course, just the same we have bare branches in January:)
Courage will give me the necessary umph when I see a hundred steps in front of me to climb:)
In the Fall we watched on our Ipad the ballet performance/ fundraising event they put on where Peach was part of, our littlest grand. One Word Sunday: action
Wordless Wed., Weekend Reflection
and when the tide rolls in, and my feet get wet, I can say, “Maybe wet, but I’m not overtaken!”
TO ALL A HAPPY 2022 -starting with no resolutions!
Whereas a new year for me was before just taken as a change of date, a new year with a new strain of virus, luckily less strong, makes one spend more thoughts in how to approach this year. These two below definitely took the jump
Occasionally I do commissions. Here the request of the bridegroom “to paint something for their wedding on a the beach.” For me it meant a research project about their characteristics, their hopes and dreams to start forming a picture in my mind what their marriage would/could look like. He loves horses, she celebrates life no matter circumstances. Also they like the unusual, and are adventurous.
Since I did not link this birdie last week, it appears again, begging me to get on the ball! Photo/aWeek, Sat. Critters
Something new to do at Christmas- have not done any puzzle in years! This one is a 1000 pieces. Used a wrapped canvas as backing to get it on and off the table One Word sun: the box is open, Makro-Tex: new
Uhhhhhh ….. jump? Now our son after a Christmas with his parents, hopped on the plane to visit California, Switzerland, and Germany, before returning to work, I realize how his thought processes resemble mine: a daredevil mixed with moments of precaution. (the gap is larger and higher than the image shows) By the way at 4.30 am. the airport looked liked the 4th of July!! Everywhere extremely long lines, and crowds of people going back home. Sun. Best, Weekend Reflection
Don’t know how these two colors appeared in the sky – maybe how I held the camera, or the glare of the water right behind this scene in San Diego. Sky Watch
On Rosh Hashanah two years ago (the Jewish New Year in September/October) I felt the urge to paint this little painting. The painting is small, but it will be the biggest event for believers in Yeshua, or Jesus, the son of God who once came to this earth to save us from our wrong doings, so we could have eternal life in heaven.
John and several other writers refer to this event that in the end of times, that He will come back in the clouds to pick up his believers, or stronger, his family, becausehe made us like him (in his image.).
Our bodies will be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and we will go upwards to join him. I knew it would be “soon” as in an eternal perspective, but may be a heads up, to be sure you don’t miss this! You never know … it may be in this decade!
Not in the twinkling of an eye, like the event above, but fun to see lights twinkling at night down the street:)
Before looking around the corner, guess what we have been doing this week – snacking a lot on Christmas cookies, when my son – who lives in Holland,- visited us (the day he went on the plane to this side of the pond, Holland was on locked down again!)
A corner is often an exciting moment – what would be around the corner in 2022? On one of my many happy memories of hiking at Happy Isles to paint (leading up to Half Dome, which hubby is climbing up to) in Yosemite Nat Park Travel Tue, Makro-Tex
Ah, a bench to take a break One Word Sun, Weekly Smile
Had to get used to Texas where most houses have a neighborhood association. They are pretty lenient except for garbage bins out of sight. They put up Xmas lights at the entrance.
A fantastic creation by Boo, our 5th grand. Looking professional, Bro! Weekly Smile, One Word Sun
Wordless
We celebrate His birthday the 25th. He is called the Lily of the Valley and Bright Morning Star FOTD, Fri Floral Foto
The blurry reflections fit well here, on the border of Sutro Bath in San Francisco Travel Tue, Weekend Reflection
High up in the mountains of Yosemite Nat. Park The grey mountain in the background is El Capitain Sky Watch
living between two realms 