Showing posts with label still life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label still life. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Little Things


It's been a month since my last post. I've spent a lot of that time trying to think of what to post next. I was waiting for something deep... but sitting here realized that life isn't about those deep moments. They are good, but not what we feed on. It's really the little things that make life wonderful. The deep moments just help us see the daily better.

I went for a walk this morning. It's coming into summer here. The flowers have been blooming for some time now, taking turns at their annual week in the limelight. The fruit trees have bloomed and given over to full leaf. The first bulbs of spring are going back to sleep until 2010. Azaleas and rhododendrons are in full glory, but it's the summer flowers that are just starting to wake up. Among them is my little rose bush. It's a little Perle d'Or, I think, similar to a Cecil Bruner and oh so fragrant! The flowers are short-lived, but joyful in their existance. I've described them as beautiful buds that sneeze upon opening! They start out petite and dainty then *poof* a pompom of petals.

We bought the plant for $5 at a garage sale last summer. It's the perfect first bush in my life as I prefer the fragrance over the shape. (Though both is always a nice surprise!) It settled in most happily and blooms away during the warmer months. One afternoon last summer, I painted the blossoms in a tiny brass pitcher. The flowers and vase seemed to suit each other so perfectly, but time was my enemy as they started to sniff and snort before the inevitable sneeze! Perhaps it was that pressure combined with the beauty before me that kept my brush recording quickly but accurately and resulted in the freshness of the finished piece. It was a good moment to capture because it is one I need to remember to look for daily--the Tiny Treasure.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Faith, Hope, Love, 8x10, oil

This recent painting seems a good one to begin a blog with. For one thing, it is a painting of the foundations for all my work.

Faith is represented by the Bible which is where it all starts. That faith in Christ's finished work gives me a solid past, present, and future. Moving forward, the dried rose is a symbol of hope. Just as blossoms fade from year to year and are replaced by new ones, so we move through the seasons of our lives leaving old dreams and discovering new ones. So long as that hope is rooted in the faith, it will never be ashamed because the small hopes are dwarfed and interpreted by our great eternal hope. And love. The pitcher, a gift from a friend, is a reminder that there are people all over the world now who love me--a humbling thought. And it's not because of who I am, but because of God first loving us and teaching us to love one another. It's really His love flowing through them. In a sense, we are like pitchers being filled and pouring out. And that brings us full circle back to the Bible again. Because that is where we first learn of His love, which inspires faith and gives us hope... and teaches us to love each other.