Water-Blogged

 (Deer in Yellowstone National Park/watercolor study)

 What is with water?!  We are drawn to it like a magnet.  Reflections of sunlight on a lake or the sound of thundering falls catch our attention.  Without water we would not be alive.  It sustains all life on this planet.  Viewing a well-watered garden is a pleasure.  

We can observe water in a variety of ways...fountains, lakes, rivers, oceans, geysers, rain, snow, and waterfalls.  

(Upper Yellowstone Falls)

Water nurtures life for plants, wildlife, and us humans.  Around water, life teems with activity. 

One is reminded of the words Jesus spoke when He stated that no one would thirst if they drank of the living water that He offers.  In John 4:14 He said, "But those who drink the water that I give will never be thirsty again.  It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life." (NLT)  

I like that!  Fresh....bubbling.  A spring!  A constant flow!  I want a well-watered life, don't you?!  Thirst is quenched in Him...life in Him becomes deeply satisfying.

(Mt. Baker from Anacortes, WA)

 ( Happy little turtles on the water log)

This is a little pastel study I did this week...first here is the underpainting.  It doesn't appear to make much sense.  Just like life.  

But as the artist develops the composition, the artwork begins to make more sense, often not looking anything like it started out.

One has to trust the process that it will hopefully be the desired result in the end.  

Okay, well that's it for this week.  Did I get you wet?!  :)  Go ahead....dive in!

Be brave and courageous!

Yellowstone Wildlife & Limited Capacity

What caught my eye in Yellowstone National Park last week, along with all the stunning scenery, were these two dignified little schnauzers.  They seemed to do everything in timed tandem...hilarious!  They indulged me politely in conversation and a pose.  Their fur was coal black in the sunlight as they sat on a log bench along the south rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  Perhaps they were a bit edgy about the high bear alert in the park that week!

My travels the past week have taken me from the monumental Scottsbluff area of Nebraska

 to Jackson, Wyoming where I got to tour the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the Grand Teton range,

 Yellowstone National Park,

 and across Montana, Idaho, and Washington into mountainous British Columbia.  So many miles and so many thoughts to think as I beheld and drove!

I was overcome much of the trip with the awareness that I just couldn't grasp all that I was seeing.  I felt so inadequate to comprehend the beauty and the vastness of all that was before me.  I kept trying to absorb as much as I could, but was left with the sense that I couldn't get it all within me.

  When faced with such immensity, beauty, and grandeur we come face to face with the reality of our limited capacity to enter into full joy, comprehension, and sensory experience of what we are beholding.  It is then that I am reminded that we are made for eternity.  There is always that yearning, that haunting for something more that lurks in our earthly experiences of beauty and truth.  We know too well that we are made for something more. 

 These are the avenues in this world that point us towards the Creator of all this beauty and that to enjoy relationship with Him is the highest and most deeply satisfying experience for the human soul.  All I could do as I beheld this grandeur was to be in the moment and express my heartfelt worship to God.  Someday I WILL have the capacity to enjoy fully forever what I struggle to get just a small grip on now!  All I can say is "Bring it on!"

I asked a tourist to take this last photo of me at a meaningful scene at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  This particular location is called Artists' Point and is where Thomas Moran painted some of his awesome paintings of Yellowstone.  

It is a challenge and reminder to me to continue to study, research, and practice techniques so that I, too, can bring the beauty of this world before many people's eyes as Thomas Moran did.  In a world that is currently in such turmoil, we need to be reminded of better things and refreshed by that!

Be brave and courageous!

Getting Prepared

"Always be prepared" is the motto of the Scouts.  It is a good working game plan to follow.  So I have been busy preparing for the next season of my artwork.  I like to make my own painting panels out of masonite hardboard.  I can cut the panels to the dimensions I like.  So I cut up a bunch of them this past week, lightly sanding in between applying 3 coats of acrylic white gesso to them.  Nine of them I added white marble dust to the gesso in order to use for pastel drawings.  

I am going to focus on further studies in oil and pastel using these panels.  These studies will be 8" x 10" and 9" x 12" sizes.  

The next couple of weeks I am on a travel adventure out west and hopefully will capture some great material for future pieces of art.  So I won't be doing much of this....

(Sleeping tiger at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo...should I awake him and tell him it is rated #1 in the world?)

Hope you have a satisfying weekend and be well prepared!

Be strong and courageous!

For My Grandson

Today I've been painting but not at my easel.  My little grandson Caleb's first birthday is coming up in a few short weeks.  So Grandma has been busy at the workbench building this little wooden toy for him to learn his colors, shapes, and encourage his eye/hand coordination.

Ink and Pastel Study

6.5" x 5"

Lament from a Church Pew

"My grief lies all within,

And these external manners of lament

Are merely shadows to the unseen grief

That swells with silence in the tortured soul."

                                                                           ---William Shakespeare.

Okay...I could just let a picture say a thousand words here.  Maybe I should.  This was my experience first hand last Sunday morning in church just as the service was about to begin.  A toddler a few pews ahead of me had a deep lament that needed immediate expressing.  The elderly man in the pew behind me was muttering under his breath, "Take him out...before it gets worse!"  Soon the little one was carried out and peace once again pervaded the sanctuary.  As best I can remember, this is what the contortions on his face looked like.  

As this little guy was being carried out of the service, my thoughts rambled on down the path beyond his momentary sorrow to the rest of us sitting in those pews.  And I wondered if that same facial expression might be seen in more than one heart of my fellow worshipers.  As adults, we have marvelously mastered the art of acting and putting on a front when our innards are contorted in deep pain/grief/sorrow.  Witness the untimely death this week of beloved Hollywood actor Robin Williams due to deep inner heartache.  

(from my sketchbooks)

Grief/sorrow/depression are an all too familiar shared human experience, but interestingly one that we try to avoid or walk around in our encounters with those suffering under it.  I am glad that there is One who hears our every sigh, who captures every tear in a bottle, and who will one day wipe away every tear from the eyes of those who love Him.  He is the One who offers comfort and compassion in the middle of the darkest nights of our lives.  And He is the One who will ultimately bring an end to suffering and injustice in this world.

(from my sketchbooks)

One of my Olympic heroes in college was ice skater Janet Lynn.  Here is a quote of hers about dealing with grief/broken dreams that I pass along to you:

In a speech given at the dedication of the Janet Lynn Ice Arena in her hometown of Rockford, Illinois, in July 2000, Janet boldly proclaimed that,“Through the joys and difficulties, Jesus Christ has been my stability. He has a plan for my life and it certainly included skating. The faith that my family introduced me to through regular church attendance ultimately enabled me to focus on the good and persevere through the unpleasant things. My faith in Christ, knowing that the loving God can take even broken dreams and make something beautiful in His time, has been the hope of my life. This faith was a foundation of my skating.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YvElljzi7rE

Peace, joy, love, and HOPE to you this week!

Living To Tell About It

With summer rodeos recently in my experiences, I have thought about what makes them so attractive to participants and crowds alike. Appreciation of the western way of life and ranching is part.  The announcer's banter with the rodeo clowns adds a humorous aspect, too.  But as in bronc and bull riding, there is a risk factor involved.  It keeps the crowd watching with bated breath hoping all goes okay for the cowboy who is being tossed about in every direction or scrambling to get out from  harm's/hooves' way!  We want him to live to tell about it.

As an artist, I want to live to tell about it, too.  I want to experience life fully engaged with my senses, my mind, and my heart to what is going on in the world in which I live.  This morning early I was reading about living water.  And I got to wondering what that meant?

 So I pursued some study on it and found some invigorating concepts to enrich my life.  Living means to breathe, to be not lifeless or dead, to be in full vigor, fresh, strong, efficient, and active.  I like that.  Like a river.  The water is not still or stagnant, but flowing and percolating.  The water is running.  Also like a spring...fresh, invigorating, creating an ideal habitat for growth.  A spring is surface evidence of what is happening under the surface.  Our lives need to be enriched by an intentional work of God's grace in our lives.  There will be overflow that can nourish and benefit others.  This also greatly affects my study and practice of creating art that speaks of truth and beauty to a world that is often hurried and hassled, beseiged by turmoil and tragedy.  

 Water is indispensable for life.  Springs, rivers, and oceans teem with life.  As a fellow human being and as an artist, I want myself to be teeming with life, full of living water so that there will be an overflow to benefit others.  Check out what Jesus said in John 4:10 and 13.  This is the foundation of my life and what influences my perspectives and creation of artworks.

(These are all watercolor studies from my watercolor travel journal)

Speaking of water...a gentle summer rain is watering the earth outside my studio door today!   

Be strong and courageous!