From Beginning to End

Quite awhile ago my sister-in-law contacted me and asked me to come paint at a women's retreat while she taught.  Well, of course!  She gave me her initial thoughts on what she might be teaching, and we hashed it out, and then I came up with a line drawing for her approval.  Of course, I HAD to color it in, just like in a coloring book.  Stay inside the lines, now!!

Then, we took a road trip...16 hours on the dotted line!  The canvas started black, with the lines drawn on it in pencil (I did all that at home), and then I had three different sessions to work on it while my sister-in-law taught.

This is the end of session one.  (funny how the lighting made the yellow look oh-so-brilliant in this pic!!  It's not really that bright.)

And the final  product!  I was nervous to the point of shaking for the first 10 minutes of the first session, and after that God was kind and I found it to be FUN.  The red turned out darker than I intended, and I love it. 

When it was all said and done, I loaded up all my junk, left the canvas behind, and returned to my tiny little home.

 Thank You, My Father, for Your Kindness.  Your Faithfulness.  Your activity in my life.

Live Art

Last Sunday a friend and I did live-art at our church.  While the worship band played, and all the people sang, we painted.  It was nerve racking, to say the least!  But, now that it's all done, I think it was definitely a good thing.

The previous friday there had been a boy in our town who was killed in a car accident.  It's a small community, and a lot of people are heart-broken.  So Sunday's theme was particularly poignant:  that in the midst of our storms, there is Jesus Himself, saying "Peace, Be Still".  He is our only real source of CALM.

By the way, my painting friend is Lois Sprague....you can see more of her work here: 

http://www.loisrosiosprague.com