SUMMER IN JULY

Oil, 24 x 30 inch, Breakout of the City, © St Germain

Back to another large auditorium and big podium,
so I knew it had to use bright colors
for people to see what I was painting.

There are a few main concepts here.
The example of the king in war,
he sets the example of bravery
to break out of the city.
The second was the Keys to win the war.
The idea of anticipation to war and conquer
hung in the air of the city.

The third is the large doors. On the left
another Key is displayed on the left door,
disguised as a tree.

Had this painting displayed on my last art workshop
in April and interestingly the one who
liked this one the most, had overlooked the keys!
(all participants pick their favorite painting
out of the bunch, is how I like
to start a workshop, to get everyone involved)

This is what summer in July means to me: be at all times close
to a fan or air-conditioning, so you don’t have
to walk around feeling drenched for the rest of the day.
Texas is proud of their longhorn cows as you can see.
One Word Sunday: summer; Three cows: Thurs. Trios

Behind the Scenes for Makro Tex
A corner in a bookstore in San Diego – now closed – where also
deserts and drink could be bought. The ideal place to sit down
for a few hours to do a watercolor, read a book, look at jewelry,
shawls in the store.

Can’t remember where I took this image
Garden Affair, FOTD, Floral Fri Foto

Not a care in the world for these two!
Seen in the harbor of Sacramento
Travel Tue. Der Natur Donnerstag, Weekend Reflection

Closing with a fierce sunset.
Weekend Sky, Sky Watch

SATURDAY – Sat. Critters * Garden Affair * Weekend Sky *
SUNDAY – One Word Sun* Suns Best*
MONDAY – Weekly Smile * FOTD *
TUESDAY – Tue. Pictorals * Makro-Tex * Travel Tue *
WEDNESDAY – Wordless Wed. * Der Natur Donnerstag * Thurs. Trios *
THURSDAY – Thankful Thurs.* Sky Watch* Floral Fri Foto *
FRIDAY – Fri Bliss* Weekend Reflection *

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JULY FOURTH MATCH

For Thurs. Doors, click on after the lines, or scroll past the comments and click on title Dan’s Thurs. Doors (2)!

Oil, 24 x 24 inch, Butterfly © St Germain

My plan was for butterflies to be a whole series,
which collapsed after the 2nd one
I did in pastel. So much for that:)
Who knows, there will be a time
in the future that I pick up this series again:)

My wish for this country is that it will transform in a butterfly
– beautiful and free to roam wherever it wants,
instead of the ugly constricted caterpillar it is now.
Makro-Tex, Pict. Tue.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA

My weekly smile if for this little girl who visited with her family
last week and tried out Nana’s new pottery wheel and made
a painting for her mom (my daughter)
Weekly Smile

You may know Monday is JuIy 4th, Independence Day in the USA.
You may not know the flag is called Old Glory.
Now far away from us, on the outskirts of Sacramento.
Tue Travel, Sky Watch

One match for the BBQ will light the fire:)
One Word Sun.: match

Strolling with the family to have some dessert – gelato
Pink Saturday

Red Hibiscus
Garden Affair, FOTD, Floral Fri Foto

Thia nation is known by its big cities, Hollywood, national parks etc.,
but after a while you discover
that most of the country is littered with small towns
and country side. These may be less people
in number and clout ($$), but after a few decades, I find
the people who live here, are the heart and soul
of America. (okay to disagree!)
Weekend Reflection

SATURDAY – Garden Affair* Pink Sat.*
SUNDAY – One Word Sun* Sun Best*
MONDAY – Weekly Smile* FOTD*
TUESDAY – Tue Pictorals* Makro-Tex* Travel Tue*
WEDNESDAY – Wordless Wed.*
THURSDAY – Thankful Thurs.* Sky Watch* Floral Fri Foto *
FRIDAY – Fri Bliss* Weekend Reflection*

Click on: THURS. DOORS
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MULTIPLE

Scroll to bottom for THURS. DOORS!
(after comments)

Pastel, 18 x 24  inch, Touching the Hem © St Germain

“Who touched me?” asked Jesus. His friends thought
that was an odd question
since they were in a large crowd of people.

Then Jesus explained, “Someone did touch me,
because virtue (anointing) has gone out from me. “
It turned out to be that this woman had touched the hem
of his garment, because she thought, if I only could touch
the hem of his robe, I will be healed from my disease,
because Jesus was known as the Healer.

For this painting I chose the granular cold-pressed Arches
watercolor paper. Perfect for a sketch-looking painting
where only the most important things
are highlighted, and the rest is kept sketchy.

The large painting of Rembrandt inspired me,
how he puts a young woman (almost looking like a child)
lighting up in between all the soldiers
of the most otherwise famous dark setting
of his painting The Night Watch.

“Multiple” for One Word Sun, Makro-Tex: summer

If a flower would be a person,
this would be a lovely woman. I am smarter than
the judge of the supreme court just elected
who could not answer the question
when asked what a woman is.
Okay to disagree, just don’t let me know about it, lol.

Wordlesss

You see the two turkeys? And Multiple wood to burn for winter (hubby sliced a 60 footer)
Der Natur Donnerstag, Sat Critters

Nothing but me to reflect on our deck of our house
on the country side.
Weekend Reflection

An awesome outstretched swirl at the end of the day
Sky Watch

SATURDAY – Sat. Critters* Garden Affair *
SUNDAY – One Word Sun* Sun Best*
MONDAY – FOTD * Weekly Smile*
TUESDAY – Tue Pictorals* Makro-Tex* Tue Travel*
WEDNESDAY – Wordless Wed. * Der Natur Donnerstag *
THURSDAY – Thankful Thurs. * Sky Watch* Floral Fri Foto*
FRIDAY – Fri Bliss * Weekend reflection *

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NOT EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT

If you are looking for THURS. DOORS, keep scrolling to the very bottom of the post (pass the comments) and click on Thurs. Doors!!! Oil, 24 x 24 inch, The Wine Press, © St Germain If you were a grape, would you want to go …

CELEBRATE LIFE

DON’T FORGET THURSDAY DOORS -click on bottom of post!

Soft Pastel, 18 x 24 inch, Lets Celebrate, © St Germain

A dance with a quilt performed on one of the art evenings
in Laguna Niguel, California.
No walls here! It ranged from
a drum circle, to Tibetan music instruments, to poetry.
About 40 people with only one painter: moi.
It was more than fun – it was significant, memorable,
and more of those good things:)

This was painted after that evening, and took me a while
to choose the most memorable, which was not easy,
because I had taken many images that night. To me,
that is the purpose for a believer in Christ, to have enjoy
and celebrate life, instead of the view that
life is holding on to boring rules that limit us.

IT’S ABOUT CELEBRATING LIFE!

The joy of the Lord is your strength. It means
if you have no joy, it weakens you in life

It’s not just a wall, it is … hard to describe …
a piece of history … or even
a monument? Enfin, I was totally mesmerized.
One Word Sun., Makro Tex

We started a conversation with neighbors we passed by.
I could tell one was from the city. He immediately offered
a beer from his crate. Then I told the other one
that his tree with the white blooms
I just had captured was just gorgeous
On the country side you may talk then … about anything,
for half an hour or so before we decided to continue on our walk.
Garden Affair, FOTD. Floral Fri Foto

A nostalgic memory
For Mid Week Monochrome -92

Weekly Smile, Wordless Wednesday

To clarify: proud grandparents
she has been studying nursing since

Sorry, a little blurry, except for the reflection:)
Weekend Reflection

Am not sure if this is in the Netherlands or in the USA:)
Travel Tue, Sky Watch

SATURDAY – Garden Affair *
SUNDAY – One Word Sun: wall * Sun Best *
MONDAY – Weekly Smile* FOTD *
TUESDAY – Tue Pictorals* Makro-Tex * Travel Tue*
WEDNESDAY – Wordless Wed.* MWM – 92 *
THURSDAY – Thankful Thurs.* Sky Watch* Floral Fri Foto*
FRIDAY – Fri Bliss* Weekend Reflection*

Click Here : THURS. DOORS

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UNFORGETTABLE WAVES

DON’T FORGET TO SCROLL DOWN TO THURS. DOORS (LINK -bottom of this post!)

Oil, 10 x 17 feet, The Wedding Feast, © St Germain

The Disciples (friends of Jesus), a part of my 10 x 17 inch painting. In a light brown, because that is how I separated a 115 people on this painting, as the ones coming from the past. Some were fishermen, a tax collector, etc. They turned the world upside down in their times
and caused incredible waves!

They were real people with some good and not so good
characteristics. For example: impatient Peter, sons of Zebedee. always fighting over girls,
pinching pennies Matthew,
treasonous Judas.
But Jesus called them his friends, and chose them
to be the ones who would spread
His Good News to the ends of the earth.
Am jealous of the faith and mercy he had for people.

Garden Affair, FOTD, Floral Fri Foto

What about them waves? Standing on the bridge and looking down on a runoff for the
water supply in Auburn, turning into a wild river.
One Word Sun – Wave

Wordless Wednesday

MAYBE WEIRD TO SAY
FOR A CITY SLICKER,

but I miss seeing cattle on the way to the grocery store:)

Some waves. Hubby fishing in Yosemite Nat. Park
Oh, and his blurry reflection in the foreground
Der Nature Donnerstag, Weekend Reflection

Sky Watch

SATURDAY – Garden Affair *
SUNDAY – One Word Sun* Sun Best *
MONDAY * FOTD * Weekly Smile *
TUESDAY – Tues. Pictorals * Makro-Tex* Travel Tue *
WEDNESDAY – Wordless Wed.* Der Natur Donnerstag *
THURSDAY – Thankful Thurs. * Sky Watch* Floral Fri Foto*
FRIDAY – Fri Bliss* Weekend Reflection *

Click here for THURS. DOORS

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PLAINER THAN PLAIN

Oil. 24 x 24 inch, Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge, © St Germain

The title does not apply to the painting, (smile).

Kind of a heavy title, but I have always been drawn
to these two trees in heaven/paradise that are named this way.
How easy is it for us here on earth to go after
the tree of knowledge, since It impresses people.
Let’s face it: head knowledge is limited to time and space
on the earth. God is much bigger than that, and he is infinite.
When we get on the wave length of God, we can see how
the tree of life contains the stuff that remains
and things that are eternal.

Can you guess which is the tree of knowledge?
It is the red one, for that catches the attention
of others, and reflects self. The tree of life is green,
unassuming and organic, and adjusts to the background.

There was an uplifting atmosphere while I painted this.
A late teen came to me in the middle of painting this,
saying the painting had inspired him to a poem,
and showed his journal to me.
Reactions like this one keep me painting.
I love it when people are inspired, and catch the message!

My last year’s Mothers day Bouquet from my oldest daughter
Garden affair, FOTD, Floral Fri Foto

Wordless Wednesday

AND
ABOUT THE CAKE

I keep eating cake. Whatever some evil people have planned,
they will lose, resign or disappear from the earth.
I am celebrating that:)
Weekly Smile, Makro-Tex- June

Definition of a plain: a flat area with some trees on it.
shown again for One Word Sun

It looks like the upper half of the reflection is upside down?
Weekend Reflection

Maybe the weather alert influenced me about this sky today:
tornado, flooding. jikes. Hoping for the best!
But, there is a sky hole!
Sky Watch

MONDAY – Garden Affair* FOTD* Weekly Smile*
TUESDAY – Pictoral Tue * Makro-Tex: WHATW* Travel Tue*
WEDNESDAY – Wordless Wed.*
THURSDAY – Thankful Thurs.* Sky Watch *
FRIDAY – Fri Bliss * Weekend Reflection*
SUNDAY – One Word Sun. – plain* Sun’s Best*

NO Thurs. Doors this week!

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COMING HOME

DON’T FORGET TO LINK TO THURS. DOORS –
SCROLL DOWN

Soft Pastel, 22 x 30 inch Soldier Coming Home, © St Germain

I will never forget this painting in pastel.
At that time, I lived in a street full of veterans, having been in
Desert Storm, Vietnam, etc., so this subject was pretty much
in line with where I lived. What is so unusual,
I was at this point, painting this
for the congregation of a church. I was almost finished,
but I never could finish it, because
covid broke out the next Sunday.
It was literally, a soldier coming home,
everyone came home,
and had no idea we would be home
for months of lockdown.

That you may come to your eternal home in the figurative
sense because the sacrifice he once made, so he could
take you to his home in heaven.

You might not know it, but pastel is as strong and
durable as the oil medium
(Judging from the sketches of well known painters
like Rembrandt, de Goya, etc.).
I don’t use it as much,
since I often paint for audiences, and most of them
have not enough light to see the subtle differences
in colors to see which I should use.
Also, it is more appropriate for smaller paintings.

This paper is from Arches -cold pressed. I like this rough
watercolor paper, easier to handle
since it gives an instant “structure” to what is
painted. With pastel it gives the effect
of little white spaces in between.

Wordless
Garden Affair, FOTD, Floral Fri Foto

Citty dwellers have points of reference that may not mean
anything to someone not living in the city. This is San Francisco.
Waiting at the open bridge …. I look at my watch ….

Palms always give such a punch at the grey road sides
Der Natur Donnerstag

When my kids were at home, one of the inexpensive outings
(since I did my graduate work at that time) with them
– when gas (for the car) was cheap –
was a day at the beach at the pier in Long Beach
we always went to, since this beach was the closest.
One Word Sun – pier

On our walk through the financial district in San Franciso.
Am not sure if the two guys are also part of the reflection!
Jo’s Walk, Weekend Reflection

You cant walk without eating cookies – have some!
We purchase this tin every December
Makro-Tex (Down View)

On the way home, we pass the Amador City sign 🙂
This city has one main street, haha
Sky Watch

MONDAY – Jo’s Walk * Garden Affair * Weekly Smile * FOTD *
TUESDAY – Tue Scribbles * Makro-Tex * Travel Tue *
WEDNESDAY – Wordless Wed. * Der Natur Donnerstag *
THURSDAY – Sky Watch * Thankful Thurs. * floral Fri Foto*
FRIDAY – Fri Bliss * Weekly Reflections *
SUNDAY – One Word Sun. * Sun. Best *

click on Thurs. Doors

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THE LITTLE YOU HAVE COUNTS …

Oil, 24 x 30 inch, the Widow’s Coin, © St Germain

Give and it shall be given to you – a Biblical principle.
Worked a long time on this one to show
it in a more classical style. Explained to the audience
was that Jesus in the background is not judging,
he is waiting (because in the US culture, having one’s
arms across the chest means: closed off –
not so in other cultures.)

A hard thing to get over, if we have a hard time
making ends meet, that any little gift counts.
Jesus is in the background notices it,
and later he comes back to it, “She has given everything!”
So true, our gift depends on what we have.

Yesterday I saw of a video of a man with a big bag,
asking passers by, “Do you have a few (or two) dollars?”
Then, when the person opens their wallet, he opens his bag
and gives back a hundred times of what they gave.
Wow, wow, wow, but that exactly what God does.

FOTD, Garden Affair, Floral Fri Foto

An icon I never get enough of when walking along the waterside
in the harbor of Sacramento
Jo’s Walk

A tire reflection and birdie
Weekend Reflection, Sat. Critters

Wordless Wed. and One Word Sunday: Sea at Corona Beach
(notice the birds!)

Nothing better than a feathery sunset
Sky Watch

MONDAY – Garden Affair* FOTD * Weekly Smile* Jo’s Walk *
TUESDAY – Tue Scribbles * Makro-Tex: Flowers* Travel Tue.*
WEDNESDAY – Wordless Wed. * Wed. Scrib *
THURSDAY – Thankful Thurs. * Sky Watch * Floral Fri Foto *
FRIDAY – Weekend Reflection * Fri Bliss *
SATURDAY – Sat. Critters *
SUNDAY – One Word Sunday: sea* Sundays Best*

CLICK HERE FOR – Thurs. Doors

UP AND DOWN THE STAIRS

DON’T FORGET TO CLICK ON THURS. DOORS, at the BOTTOM OF THIS POST TO SEE THE SOCKS DOOR

Oil, 36 x 36 inch, Angels’ Staircase, © St Germain

Waited a while, first showing you plenty of other subjects,
earthly, current, political, seasonal, so you know my life is
not in a cathedral, but in a regular house in a suburb,
and my life is as such. Yet, angels are as real as
the things you can touch and feel, like a camera, a car, etc.

This was a dream Jacob had at night,
while sleeping in the outdoors. It was of such importance
that it literally changed his DNA!
He saw angels ascending and descending on a ladder.
Angels are NOT little cute cherubs. What I know from
angels, I have read in the Bible, and have seen a few.
Many are much taller than human beings.
They are definitely more beautiful than people on earth.
They have no gender. Some have no wings,
others have 2 or 6. They differ in rank and purpose,
and is seen in what they wear.
They carry out God’s commands.
They can be fierce and extremely strong.
Just one example in 2 Kings 19 : 35 -at night
the angel struck 185.000 of the Assyrians dead.
They help people out of many messes:)
(Disclaimer, the yellow in the painting is much stronger,
wile the lighter blue on top is not as dominant)
Diversity in Angels – One Word Sun.

Added to the ABOUT section – HAVE A LOOK
( click on the middle of the 3 horizontal lines
on right top of blog)

Hubby has a good steady hand for these kinds of flower captures.
Wisteria in our previous back yard
Garden Affair, FOTD, Floral Fri Foto

A larger view, if you look closely you see the bird house
in between the bare branches on the right side
(the round hole opening and the pointy roof).
Der Natur Donnerstag

Wordless Wed.

Nature as good as it gets!
Makro-Tex: May, Weekend Reflection

Who says the country side is boring?
Always another view of the sky, the fields, streams,
flowers, weather conditions. All from my deck or across the path.

MONDAY – Garden Affair * FOTD* Weekly Smile*
TUESDAY – Pictoral Tue * Makro-Tex * Travel Tue *
WEDNESDAY – Wordless Wednesday * Der Natur Donnerstag *
THURSDAY – Thankful Thurs.* Sky Watch* Floral Fri Foto*
FRIDAY – Fri Bliss * Weekend Reflection *
SUNDAY – One Word Sun * Sun’s Best *

Thurs. Doors (click)

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