Precious Treasure

"We're His heart treasure. God's treasure. I mean, we never think that, do we? We don't imagine that we might be the most precious thing He has. Not the mountains, not the Grand Canyon; it's us. You're the precious treasure." 
-Sally Lloyd-Jones

The task of all tasks

I had the joy (and the task of all tasks) of attempting to capture a glimpse of Heaven on canvas.

Let me explain.

The groom (with tears in his eyes) recounted to me the reoccurring dream his bride has shared with him.  He would give the painting to his new wife as a surprise wedding gift. The image he described was of her sitting next to Jesus under a tree overlooking a vividly colored valley. You see, both bride and groom's lives (and mine, so I get it) have been drastically changed by coming into relationship with Christ, and truly understanding Who He is; the King of all, reckless Lover of our souls, and the Fulfillment of our every desire.

Wow. So the scene is true and real and oh so impossible to actually capture.

As I began, I did some word studies of the description he provided and found out just how Biblical this scene was. Here's a little of what I found, which he asked me to write out along the edges of the canvas.

Tree: 
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon  Psalm 92:12

The trees of the Lord are well watered, 
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. Psalm 104:16

She (wisdom) is a tree of life to those who take hold of her; 
those who hold her fast will be blessed. Proverbs 3:18

Valley:

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters, 

he refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths

for his name’s sake. 

Even though I walk

through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.  Psalm 23: 1-4

Majestic color/Rainbow: 

I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. ²⁸ Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him.
This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.  
Ezekiel 1:27-28

You are radiant with light,
more majestic than mountains rich with game. Psalm 76:4

I imagine in Jesus' presence there will be trees, certainly the ones who trusted Him to be their righteousness, and He Himself the fullness of wisdom; there will no longer be dark valleys, no more fear and no more evil, and no more longing to be near Him but actual nearness. There will be no sun because Christ Himself will shine, and the rainbow as a picture of God's faithfulness for all of the ages will be made visible in His radiant Presence. 

Are you kidding me? This is incredible. And it's true for those of us who know Him. (Do you know Him? How He loves you and invites you to the table of grace.)

So after I picked my jaw up off the floor, I humbly trembled before my canvas and got to work. 

Thank you, Jeremy, for letting me be part of this sweet gift. 

acrylic on canvas

16" x 20"

calendar: september

As soon as September hits, I have this expectation for cooler weather and celebratory fall colors to starting showing up. Maybe it's the ber at the end of the month's name [har har]

That's funny because it's 100 today :)
Happy September to you!

Click to enlarge, then save to your desktop from there.

Speaking of color, we will be doing some leaf-peeping in New England at the end of this month. Cant wait to see some beautiful colorful countryside.

What are you looking forward to in September?

flowery & feminine

I had the joy of painting a flowery, feminine, very fun-lovin' piece for my crafty, articulate art-admiring friend Maurie. Read: super fun to go this colorful and bold.




The painting was inspired in general by our mutual admiration for dear, sweet Anthropologie--and these plates in particular.

source

What fun it was.
Acrylic on cold-pressed heavy paper, 20" x 24".

A Bouquet of Life

Jesus defeated death and is making "everything sad come untrue." 

Happy Easter! 

...An acrylic bouquet of flowers to celebrate new life!

Wedding Portrait: NYC

Talk about dramatically romantic in Central Park. 


I was commissioned to take this gorgeous engagement photograph and put a painterly spin on it as a surprise gift from groom to bride.


Architecture + portrait.  I'm in. 


He wanted to include a sweet quote she loves. It happens to be from Winnie the Pooh.



Congrats and blessings to the newlyweds!


Acrylic - 18" x 24" 

August Calendar

A new month, a new calendar for your desktop.  Don't be shy :)

au·gust

   [aw-guhst]

–adjective

1.

inspiring reverence or admiration; of supreme dignity orgrandeur; majestic: an august performance of a religiousdrama.

2.

venerable; eminent: an august personage.

Wishing you an august  August.

Just click on this image to make it bigger, then save it or make it your desktop image from there.

Paint + sketch

then see what it becomes.




acrylic + ink = psychedelic tsunami

Sweetie Pie Portrait

Blue-eyed and smiley.

Cutie pie.

A Christmas commission piece for baby MK's grandparents. (10" x 10" acrylic)

Acrylic for great friends J&J~ Dedicated to their cute old red bed :)

Sneaky Peek

here's a sneak of a new acrylic abstract piece



red-orange is my favorite right now

Waves

Psalm 89:9
You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them.

Mark 4:41
They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"

from start to finish

hardest part for me is the very beginning, just getting some paint on the canvas. I use my fingers as little measuring sticks, trying to keep proportions as I look from photo to canvas. --as in, the widest part of her face in the photo is the length of my index finger from tip to main knuckle and on the canvas it's 5 of those units. It's definitely not scientific, but sometimes this initial proportioning helps me get the bare bones started.

I try to focus on just the light parts and then switch to focusing just on the dark parts. Rinse and repeat.

The fun part begins when the "structure" is

there and I get to start slopping color on, mixing, and making a mess. I have had to learn that sometimes, no matter how much I want to live with it, when something isn't quite looking right to me, it's worth it to go back and redo it...if I can even pinpoint what's looking goofy. I went back and redid her right eye after it was all detailed and nice (ugggghh) because it turned out being just a smidge too close to her left eye. Helped a lot...and the painting quit nagging at me, saying "I'm just not quite right."

Once I can finally pry myself away from touching up here and adding something there...it's true, an artist's work is never done...and I get to the point where I can live with it if I never touched it again, I put a little signature on it. Mine changes just about on every painting lately :)

piggy little toes*

here's the last of the series of these two sweet cheeks.

look at those toes!

I love that mom was able to capture their personalities in cute candid moments...and that they weren't even posing for a portrait :)

*lyrics from one of Andrew Peterson's super fun songs for kids

siblings

remember this little brother & sister pair?



sweet & smiley kids

two in one, friends' babes

dolls, I tell ya! more to come for these two little ones...

bride & groom

I did this for our wedding, to have displayed instead of a bridal portrait. A year and two-thirds ago :)

Three

this ends my fun little series. Fun to explore some simple photographs in three completely different ways. Which one catches your eye?

Two

One

a surprise commission for three more of little star wars dude! Take one