Colour, Glorious Colour

Colour is very important to me, I love bright strong colours, and when I find that I am using subdued colours or doing a lot of black and white work, I find I need to break out! This is what I have done this week for Sunday Sketches

The work I have being doing on the Alice series and some b & w illustrations for a children's book this week have left me hungering for colour. These days my breakouts are digital, I use my tablet and just let go.

It been really wet and cold this week so I thought I would bring in a bit of summer! You can imagine that they are at the beach can't you.

One thing I like with digital work is that you can create colours that don't get muddy, with paints when you mix paints it is ever so easy to get mud! Well I do. Perhaps that's why I like pastels, you seem to be able to get purer colours.

As colorful as a rainbow that appears after a storm. I realized I was seeing the brightness of the LORD's glory! Eze 1:28 CEV

Linked to Sunday Sketches

Alice Part 2

One thing I do remember about my grandmother was that she was extremely loyal, to her husband, to family and to her friends. My Grandfather must have never doubted her as she followed him to a very remote area to break in land for a farm, she took on his Polish/German grandmother who did not speak a word of English, who by all accounts was slipping into dementia. There, she produced 4 children in a space of 6 years. She must have had great love for him to do that, as she came from a prosperous farming family who had come out to NZ in one of the first settler boats.

In photos that I have seen of her as a young woman she looked rather stern and plain, but I know she had a romantic side to her and great compassion. I remember her always wearing pretty flowery dresses, and her scrap books were full of flowers and pretty things. I did her in pastel first as I wanted to portray her as a young pretty romantic girl, I know that she was that in her heart.

One of my most cherished memories is when at family 'get togethers', she would often take me aside and whisper in my ear “When I look into your eyes I see heaven!” Then I would whisper back, “My eyes are green, yours are blue, so the heavens are in your eyes!” Then we both would giggle. It is only as a grown up, that I realize what she was doing. I was quiet, shy and also plain. In her way, she was telling me appearances don't matter, it is what in your heart that matters. So that is why I am portraying her as a young beauty for that what was in her heart. I am sure my Grandfather saw that also, for he often referred to her as “My beautiful Alice in Wonderland.”

The processes for this picture were a pastel of the young Alice, A woodcut of the Husband, and a photograph of concrete. Then I played around with them in Photoshop.

Linked to Paint Party Friday
Spiritual Sundays

Shaped by Love

If love defines who we are, I would honoured if others see me as a child of God. My love for the Lord knows no bounds, as through Jesus Christ I have been saved.

Whoever does not love does not know God,

because God is love.

1 John 4:8 NIV

This piece is entirely digital. I used chalk pastels on a canvas background. (I use a tablet and pen for my digital painting, I would be lost without it!)

Ruth

I love Ruth, she was also a strong woman. Think what it must have taken for her to follow Naomi back. Her sister-in-law took the easy way, back to the shelter of her family. She took the hard road. I think she must have loved God so much that she didn't want to give him up. She certainly had the grace of God on her for her steadfastness in following Naomi. The book of Ruth is a perfect example of God's impartiality. Although Ruth belonged to a race often despised by Israel, she was blessed because of her faithfulness. She became a great-grandmother of King David and a direct ancestor of Jesus. I often wonder if she had a sense of the role she had to play in mothering an ancestor of Christ.

The lesson that Ruth gives us, is that our love for God if steadfast and true will bring great blessings.

This picture is a mono print where I inked a sheet of glass and laid a sheet of paper on it and then draw. Lifting the paper off you get the image on the other side with interesting textures. It is one of my favourite mediums for drawing, as what you get is always a surprise.

linked with  Sunday Sketches

and On Your Heart Tuesdays

Alice

Alice is my paternal Grandmother. I had always thought of her as a typical woman of her era – living in the shadow of her husband. How wrong I was, I have been researching family history and found that she was the mainstay of the the family.

I want to correct this image my generation have of her and honour her as a proverbs 31 woman. She lived her life to the full. For more about Alice see my Stand on Faith blog.

Every week on Fridays I will post work with the verses of Proverbs 31. I will not necessarily use the same techniques in each work as I want to experiment with media and styles.

(This was created by using a painting I completed a couple of years ago. I used photoshop and some calligraphic artwork and and lots of layers and fiddled a lot!)

Linked to Paint Party Friday 
Spiritual Sundays

One of a Kind

When God formed us in our mother's womb he made us unique, his design for our life is just for us and no one else. We have to remember this, when feel lost in the multitudes or we look at other people and that terrible feeling of envy rears its head. We can not be the same as anyone else even if we try.

We have a special place in God's heart reserved just for us. We ought to relish our individuality and hang on to it when we are feeling overlooked and lost in the crowd.

Let us Shine!

YELLOW FLOWERS (OIL)

God wants us to shine out as a beacon to others. To do so we have to try and rid ourselves of all our dark nooks and crannies. This is hard as we often hide these dark bits even from ourselves. The only way is to ask God to come and illuminate these dark corners and have his grace heal them. God needs us to walk into the light of his love, when we do so, his grace will make us shine and show others the path to him.

A Banquet is waiting...

God, the perfect shepherd, promises to guide, nourish and protect us throughout our life. He will bring blessings such as we can not imagine. We only need to call on him.

He will take care of his flock like a shepherd;

he will gather the lambs together and carry them in his arms;

he will gently lead their mothers.

Psa 40:11 GNB

The Heart of the Matter

Hoya the Scent of Heaven

Since we were little girls we have wanted to be beautiful,  we are led to think it is how we look.  We shouldn't worry so much, as the Lord looks at our heart not at our appearance.  Maybe it is age, but I would get more pleasure out of someone saying 'she has a beautiful heart' than the  throw away phrase 'She is beautiful'.  Although, if I am honest that would be nice too!