Poppies in Glass

Poppies in Glass (Mixed Media Half Sheet)

This Monday morning I woke to see a mist in the air and our flag blowing slightly. There is a heavy dew on the ground, indicating winter is very close. Every thing has been brought in for the changing weather.

When I decided to do this project, it did not start out for these flowers to be a daily journal, just a way of categorizing my paintings. I planned to add one painting a day from my garden of color and I knew it would be at least a year's project.  These paintings are becoming a way of sharing where and what is in my heart each day. 

The Word says that "The preparation of the heart belongs to the Lord." He prepares our heart as artists to see differently as we are changing daily and evey thing around us is changing. I have no idea how I will feel tomorrow, but today, I have an appreciation for all of his beauty. Maybe that is why artists and writers paint and write, they record that moment of time that will never be a part of them again.

I look on this painting and think, "It must have been a freeing day, I painted bold, loose and with bright colors This is what an impressionist painting does for me. It gets me out of the box." My style has changed dramatically over  fortyfive years. I started out with a very traditional painter which harnessed me in, in detail and discpline.

Petal Tips! This painting is a mixed media, beginning with a watercolor on 300# paper. I would consider this painting more of an impressionistic painting. I didn't follow the rules.  I have always said, "Once you know the rules you can break them." In an impressionist painting, I do not worry about where the light is coming from, and where the shadows are. If it is a traditional painting, I am very careful to record it accurately. But this is what is so fun, I let the painting speak to me. I am more concerned with the design and balance than with the subject.

I brought some red reflections from the giant poppies to the table top. I didn't want all the red to be at the top. I wanted these floppy flowers to pull down in weight. I balanced the strokes, some are going straight up and some strokes are bending down with the flowers. It is to give a heavy feeling of big flowers too big for their stems. Those strokes could be leaves but lines are okay too.

I made a few diagonal strokes through the pot.from left to right. They could be shadows and light on the pot from the leaves or just an interesting directional stroke for the painting sake. Like I said, I just moved with the painting and how I felt..  That is an impressionistic painting. It captures the mood rather than the subject.

Meanderings~~~~~ The mood of the weather moves us in the same way. The dew makes the ground deep and rich in fall colors. The burnish trees, the golden and raw sienna leaves, the burnt umber tucked down deep at the base of the trees and the orange and red oak leaves all make for a beautiful painting which I want to run to my studio to capture.

The Lord does that for the artist. Being an Artist Himself, He creates not only nature, but He creates the moment for us. It's His preparation in our hearts that makes us see the moment which He has so creatively orchestrated

.

Every thing I look at I see a spiritual indication of God's beauty, His teaching, His Word, and special things He wants to say to me in this day. He has prepared my heart for this day, for bad or good weather, ups and downs, frenzied or quiet moments. In the change I am steadily planted in peace knowing things can change and will change, but I can stand still in whatever the day brings.

We serve a great God, His mercies endure forever. I love Him so much even with this fickled heart.