ADVENT STARRY NIGHT- final version

ADVENT STARRY NIGHT 2

This is what's currently on my easel. Sorry about the glare- an occupational hazard when you're using metallic paints. It's entering the final stages and I have some decisions to make about how to finish it. I'm trying some things in photoshop and also torn paper to think about some placement of final elements. The one posted earlier this month was 9x12. This is 22x28.

TO WORSHIP

Merry Christmas. This is the last of my manipulated montage photos.

You might be wondering if the shape in the center is a cross or an Advent star. I guess a little of both since each is a bookend of the life of Christ. Peace on earth, may God's kingdom come.

THREE JOYS

Annie Dillard quote from Duane Kaiser

I love this quote. I've read Annie Dillard's books and enjoyed them very much. I found this quote on Duane Kaiser's blog. www.duanekaiser.blogspot.com He's an amazing painter and very technologically savvy. His mastery of the web and web sales is phenomenal (enough so that he has been highlighted in USA today.) On his site you can click and be directed to his videos on youtube and watch him do little paintings start to finish! Very instructive.

There are many things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside by a generous hand. But- and this is the point- who gets excited by a mere penny? If you follow one arrow, if you crouch motionless on a bank to watch a tremulous ripple thrill on the water and are rewarded by the sight of a muskrat paddling from its den, will you count that sight a chip of copper only, and go on your rueful way? It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won't stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. What you see is what you get.

Annie Dillard
from "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek."

TWO JOYS

JOY

My favorite montage of the series. It captures the energy and excitment of the performance. To me, it's like the definition of joy!

REJOICE

This is a composite of some photos I took at the performance of the Promise put on by Turning Pointe School of dance in Holland, MI last year. I was disappointed by the blurriness of the photos until I started to enjoy the record of the movement, and action. I manipulated them in Photoshop Elements and learned a lot in the process.

ADVENT STARRY NIGHT

"And when we give each other Christmas gifts in His name, let us remember that He has given us the sun and moon and the stars and the earth with its forests and mountains and oceans- and all that lives and moves upon them.

He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit- and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused- and to save us from our own foolishness, for all our sins, He came down to earth and gave us Himself."

Sigrid Undset

quote from Piet Stockmans

http://www.pietstockmans.com/pages/navi.htm

This is a very cool website sent to me by my daughter Angela.

I love this quote:

"Creation is the result of activity and not of thinking. It is activity that generates ideas which, themselves, give rise to other ones. It is a process in the course of which decisive choices are made in a mysterious way. It is the automatism with which the farmer ploughs the fields, a phenomenon that can be compared to the way prayers are used, mantras recited or everyday gestures repeated. It is a quest for simplicity, peace and physical well-being."

Piet Stockmans

MILLER ROAD ABOVE PORTAGE LAKE

Coming over this rise toward Camp Tosebo and the first view of Portage Lake is a spring and summer pleasure I look forward to again. Too early to count down to spring, but it sure is icy and cold in Michigan today! It's a 2 mile round trip walk from the Camp up Miller Road to the stop sign with a couple of heart challenging hills on the way. The vistas like this make it all worthwhile.

WINTER WOODS BY THE COTTAGE

The surface is too shiny to get a good photo. Think of it as a snow squall! This is what the world looks like in Michigan now.

LIGHT THROUGH RED TREES #2

LIGHT THROUGH RED TREES #1

This is 12" square. A little larger format.
Yet another take on the burning bush.
One commenter made the connection between this work and the burning bush where Moses encountered God.


Yes, it's a lot like that on a fall day with the trees blazing.

BURNING BUSH #6

Today we are getting a pile of snow. The illusion of fall is over! Time to move on to a new topic. Two more larger red tree paintings are in the pipeline.

Eyekons Gallery

Friday, December 1 (tomorrow) is the opening for the Advent Show at the Eyekons Gallery from 5-10.
http://www.eyekons.com/default.aspx?page=82

Here's a page with four of my images from their site:
http://www.eyekons.com/gallery.aspx?id=14
I'm delighted- the titles aren't correct, but they're pretty busy making gallery magic right now, we can correct that later!

BURNING BUSH #5

Is all the red getting redundant? I see it as an antidote for the winter weather heading our way!

BURNING BUSH #4

Yet another variation on the theme.

BURNING BUSH #3

This is a personal favorite. This piece is at the Eyekons Gallery in Grand Rapids. 6"x6"- $95

BURNING BUSH #2

BURNING BUSH 1

Another 6"x6" painted box, the beginning of a series of BURNING BUSH paintings. The red trees have gotten such a good response and they are such fun to paint that I'm doing more. Perhaps they are the 'Tickle Me Elmo' of the art world this Christmas! Variations are available at Eyekons in Grand Rapids and Fire and Water Art in Lowell.

icon- The Virgin of the Sign

This is a documentation of the process we went through in Lowell last week on th contemplative journey of 'writing' an icon of the Virgin of the Sign. It was a wonderful week of contemplation, learning, fun, and prayer. Not a creative process but a contemplative one.

You can scroll through this like a flip book and watch it develop! It took us five days and layers and layers of paint. We began the process with prayer and meditation. The teacher had line drawings of the image. We traced these onto tracing paper and then centered that on top of a graphite sheet on the board and traced it again. We painted the lines with a dark color. Then we put layers of yellow paint over it and proceeded through the process over five days with the teacher demonstrating each step and telling us what color to use and returning to our seats and following the direction. We listened to chant and sacred music as we worked and prayed into our brushstrokes. The paint was thinnned to the consistency of hal and half creamer and the layers built up.

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The Virgin of the Sign

Last week I painted an icon of the Virgin of the Sign at the Franciscan Process Life Center in Lowell. What a process! It's a contemplative journey, not a creative one. It was wonderful. Diane Hamel was the teacher and she is so knowledgable and reverent and funny. It was a blessed week.
Here's the result. I'll post them in reverse order so you can see the steps we took.

a new baby- Matthew

This is my new grand baby Matthew. Five pounds, 14 ounces and already loved by the rest of his family. What a cute kid! We are blessed to have this safe delivery. Peace, Matthew!

12"x12" RED TREES 1

It's been so fun this fall to go deep into the colors of the season. We're down to mostly neutral colors around here. but I can still remeber the glory of autumn! There's beauty in the neutrals too, but I've got MONTHS to work on enjoying them!

12"x12" LANDSCAPE 1

Just a little larger format on this one. I find the square is a delightful shape to paint on. I'm not sure why that is. The name is a little nondescript.

FALL 10 and WINTER 2

These are views of the approach to the Franciscan Center. These are small (6"x6") acrylic paintings. I like the immediacy of acrylics and the quick drying. After years of doing demonstration paintings for classes, I'm a pretty fast painter. I try not to get too bogged down with detail. Sometimes it works! What you can't see is that the image wraps around the side of a canvas box. I keep meaning to photograph some with the sides visible, but there's too much going on right now!!

If you're keeping score you'll notice there's no Fall #9. I don't know why that is!! I'll have to look over the inventory!