HOPEFULLY A FRIENDLY WINTER

Oil, 24 x 30 inch, Run With Horses © St Germain
(my own painting)

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

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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

MONDAY – Our World * Weekly Smile * FOTD *
TUESDAY – Tue Scribbles * Travel Tue * Makro-Tex *
Garden Affair * PhotoAWeek *
WEDNESDAY – Wordless Wednesday *
THURSDAY – Thankful Thurs.* Sky Watch *
FRIDAY – Fri Bliss * Weekend Reflection *
SUNDAY – One Word Sun * Sun’s Best *

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DAN’S THURSDAY DOORS – FEB 10

A leftover of last holidays decorations.
Am puzzled by the sign “Beer and Butcher,”
didn’t know those two were a pair:):)

A door behind a window. So cute, could not resist!

More doors in the window display of “All Things Kids” store.

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COLORS MATTER

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Oil, 36 x 36 inch, Double for Your Trouble, © St Germain

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.

© St. Germain, Aug. 2019

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

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

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THURS. DOORS – Feb 3- 2022

A little too positive, haha

Wonder how people get in and out of this one!

Some like it plain, and others ….

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HERITAGE

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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

MONDAY – Our World * Weekly Smile * FOTD *
TUESDAY – Tue Scribbles* Makro-Tex* Travel Tue* Garden Affair*
WEDNESDAY – Wordless Wed. *
THURSDAY – * Sky Watch *Thankful Thurs.*
FRIDAY – Fri Bliss * Weekend Reflection *
SUNDAY – One Word Sun * Sun Best *

THURS DOORS JAN 27 – 2022

America

Unimaginaative, but needed for Home Depot … the birds make good for a lot

The hard count of it is that they could improve on a friendlier entrance door:)

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A NEW YEAR -A NEW COURAGE

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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.

Oil, 36 x 36 inch, Mene mene Tekel © St Germain

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!”

MONDAY – Our World * Weekly Smile * FOTD *
TUESDAY – Tue Scribbles * Travel Tue * Makro Tex * PhotoAWeek *
WEDNESDAY – Wordless Wed. * Garden Affair *
THURSDAY – Thankful Thurs. * Sky Watch *
FRIDAY – Fri Bliss * Weekend Reflection *
SUNDAY – One Word Sun. * Sun’s Best *

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THURS. DOORS – JAN. 20- 2022

The roof line of this tiny business in town was so cute, I had to include this door.

Some of hubby’s jobs were really worth the stay, while he improved the house.

Even though staying in a hotel in town maybe nicer, staying on the job site, shortened the work time considerably instead.

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HOW SHALL WE THEN LIVE?

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(right under this one)

Oil. 36 x 36 inch Spheres of Influence. © St Germain
“How shall we then live?” was the big question of Francis Schaeffer,
a philosopher who lived in Switzerland,
more known in the 1960 to 1980. It had been
since Bonhoeffer since there was a philosopher
who had much influence on the people of his days.
His question was the inspiration for this painting.

Actually, this should show before the painting was finished,
but usually since the first image shows on the net,
I chose to make this the second image.
When I was younger, philosophy was important to me.
Here, I show how I make sense of the process
of how we then should live -the (God’s) hand connected
to everything that happens on earth, and the multiple
and intersecting arches were the actual beginning.
The angels were added, and then moving from the unseen
realm to the visible world, thirdly – the pillars of society.
Here, all these ideas have already been added,
but in plenty of cases, the ideas may come
one after another, while I am working on it.

The general idea to get across is how a culture works
and how the spheres of influence interact. They’re also called
by some the mountains of society, but I prefer spheres
of influence. since they are formed and changed by
the interaction, while mountains are part of creation.

How PhotoAWeek perfectly fits in this post with posterity!
Our family is not as big as Nadia’s, but bigger than many
Dutch families, for we have 7 grand kids. Carene, 16 years old,
(the 4th) and almost as tall as her mom
who is 5’10” (1.78 meters).
It seems there are more opportunities for funny situations
to share. Even though this is not a conscious reason,
but a very telling thing is that in first grade I invited
ALL 28 kids from my class to my birthday party
(to the chock of my dear mother).

Have already enough of winter. Sure hope for a looong Spring season!

A few rays of sun in a dark somber sky ….
One Word Sun: weather., Sky Watch

Wordless Wed, Garden Affair

MakroTex – January, Weekend Reflection

MONDAY – Our World * Weekly Smile* FOTD *
TUESDAY – Tue. Scribbles * Travel Tue * Makro-Tex *
WEDNESDAY – Wordless Wed. * Garden Affair * PhotoAWeek *
THURSDAY – Sky Watch * Thankful Thurs.* Der Natur D. *
FRIDAY – Fri Bliss * Weekend Reflection *
SUNDAY – One Word Sun* Sundays Best *

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THURS. DOORS- January 2022

One of the shops in Old Sacramento

Even though rugged I wanted to display this whole wall
of one of the stores in Folsum CA

One of the residents doors of Apple Hill Farm, CA

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