Advent: Psalm 40, Psalm of the Incarnation

Week two in the Advent series -- Psalm 40, the Psalm of Christ's Incarnation. 

This digital collage is an interpretation of verses 1b-2 corresponding to my church's sermon series through four psalms during the Advent season.

    "He inclined to me and heard my cry.
  He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
    out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
    making my steps secure."

Psalm 40:1b-2

Josh Kruger's sermon on this Psalm can be heard here.

Stephanie Shanks wrote a beautiful description of her project to facilitate the making of artwork in anticipation of Christmas during the Advent season. 

"What if art was just a way of turning prayers inside out, to be seen and shared? The Advent Art Project is a collection of “visible prayers” gathered from the church and displayed on the walls of our building to encourage each other and prepare our hearts for Christmas."
-Stephanie Shanks

Prayers turned inside out. Love that. So perfectly stated.

Read the full blog post here.

Advent: Psalm 2, The Psalm of the King

Between working on commission pieces clients will be giving as Christmas gifts (hence the lack of artwork on the blog) I started a series of digital collages inspired by the Advent sermon series at my church.

Back in 2008 I illustrated Psalm 139 by means of digital collage and have been wanting to create more ever since. See a selection of the collages here: Psalm 139


The first sermon of the series was a beautiful exposition of Psalm 2: Christ, as King over the nations of the earth. Listen to the sermon here.

Below are my interpretations of the Psalm, with the key text of the Psalm included in the collage.

Why do the nations rage

and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers take counsel together,

against the Lord and against his Anointed... 
Then he will speak to them in his wrath,  
and terrify them in his fury...

 Psalm 2:1-2 and 5

I will make the nations your heritage,

and the ends of the earth your possession.

Psalm 2:8

A Few Mentions

Don't worry, I'm still here. Still painting & drawing. Working on commissioned work, mostly to be given as Christmas gifts, hence the lack of posts. Don't want to ruin anyone's Christmas surprise!

Here's a few pictures to hold you over:

1. House projects have swallowed us. Here are a few shots of our adventures of home ownership:

 

45+ gallons of paint. If it's not one kind of painting its another.

 My studio over the garage is nice and toasty since the added insulation. 

(Photos of studio coming soon!)

2. Of course we've finding a little time to enjoy all the gorgeous color of this time of year.

3. Another one to mention is my Honorable Mention award. "Roseland" received the award at Crossroads Art Center's Nov/Dec Juried All-Media Show.

It's beginning to look a lot light Christmas...

I believe it was the beginning of October that I noticed the first Christmas decorations out in the stores. Earlier and earlier every year, I'm telling you folks. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas & all the hype leading up to it. All I'm saying is to let the pumpkins and fall foliage have their fair share.

Here, however, was a good 'n' proper opportunity to blast a the Christmas tunes a few months early.

A client (and now turned friend) commissioned me to paint a few scenes of her hometown, McAdenville, NC, a.k.a Christmas Town USA. Every December the small town outside Charlotte is decked for the holidays in white, red and green lights. This is what Wikipedia has to say about McAdenville:

The lights attract visitors from all over the country and is one of the biggest light shows in the US. Begun in 1956 with the assistance of Pharr Yarns, the largest employer and land owner in the town, many trees and buildings in the town are covered in Christmas lights and some form of decoration. More than 300,000 vehicles visit each year.^[4] The lights are entirely maintained by volunteers from the community, and no admission is charged. Pharr Yarns picks up the electric bill for the event.

(source)

Sounds like a fun place? Well, then I don't need to say much about how fun these two paintings were to create.

 

 "The Pharr House"

Home of W. M. Pharr, owner of Pharr Yarns, the company who (according to Wikipedia) picked up the electricity bill for those who participate in the Christmas lighting event.

McAdenville, NC/Christmas Town USA

16x20, oil on canvas

(sold)

 "The McAdenville Lake"

The lake is located in the center of the town, along with the textile factory (mentioned above), and is one of the main attractions.

McAdenville, NC/Christmas Town USA

6x8, oil on canvas

(sold)

Now if it doesn't feel like Christmas yet but you don't mind getting your toes wet, here's a good place to start. :)

 (Feliz Navidad, Playing for Change video)

Landing in the new home.

Since my last post...

We packed up everything we own, which wasn't that much, since we were moving from a one bedroom condo.

We closed on our big beautiful house.

Had our first house guests.

Emptied our moving truck into our new home! 

I would definitely call this house a cleaner-upper, as opposed to a fixer-upper. It's got good bones, but quite a bit of grime had settled over the years. According to the neighbors there were 6 cats living in the house before the previous owner passed away. We found one of them behind the oven.

We replaced all the appliances, some of which we were expecting to replace. Others, after using once or twice we didn't feel they were particularly safe.

Other things, like reclaiming the driveway from the overgrown bushes, replacing wax seals, leaking faucets, getting rid of the mother of all yellow jackets nests, repairing screens from the porch, painting the ceilings, wall & trim for the (very likely) first time since the house was first constructed, replacing all the light bulbs with compact fluorescent (one of the many joys of having a husband who works for the power company)

 Yeah, I knew you wanted to see that last one. ;)

And what post would be complete without a photo of Mr. Theo in his new sunny spot.

Thanks for reading! 

I'll be back to posting the artwork very soon.

In the meantime...

I don't have new artwork to post, so I thought I'd share a few photos from the rest of life with you folks.

After a summer of Insanity, I've gotten back into running. Purchased by first pair of barefoot Merrells on sale at DSW just in time for my favorite running season -- fall.

I've been trying to figure out my food intolerances, which has been time consuming and frustrating. It seems like the foods change every day.

 

Sweet potatoes are on the "safe" list (so far) so I am happy.

 I entered "Summer's Glow" to the Crossroads Art Center All-Media Show and was honored to receive a red ribbon.

I'm working on two different quilts with two wonderful women -- my mother-in-law and my grandmother. Unfortunately I only have a photo of one to share.

The biggest news is that we sold our condo and, yep, that is our contract pending on a house!

  

That's right. We are going to have our own four walls and our own yard. Right now it's a mess of weeds, but we're hoping get the flower beds, vegetable garden and koi pond going again.

 

One day it might appear in a painting or three, or many.

 

Mark thought we were looking for a house, but really I was on the hunt for the perfect studio space. I think we found both.

 

Theo doesn't quite know what to think of it all.

 

Honestly, neither do I. If all goes according to plan we will be moving into the house in two weeks. In the meantime, please excuse me if a little dust gathers here on the blog.

Watkins Willows, 8x10

Wakins Willows

8x10, oil

Another scene from the beautiful Watkins Nursery property in Amelia, VA.

Climbing Mount Rainier, 18x24

Climbing Mount Rainier, 18x24, oil sold

This commission appeared on my newsletter at the beginning of the month. This piece has to be one of my favorite commissions of all time. I had a low dpi reference photo, which can make things difficult but with the graphic nature of this piece plus those dazzling deep blues, this piece, while challenging, was quite fun and gratifying.

 Below are the step by step photos of the creation of this painting.

1. Before beginning the final piece I completed a loose 6x8" study painting and sent to the client for approval:

 2. All elements are penciled in, then the first layers of the background are applied.

 

 3. The first layers of the snow in the foreground are begun below:

 

A shot of how I set up to paint from the study:

 5. More layers added to the sky, background and snow, figures and gear are painted in as well.

Climbing Mount Rainier

18x24, oil on canvas

sold

Closer look at the figures:

Mount Rainier is located in Washington State, elevation 14,411 ft. 

Interested in commissioning a custom painting?

E-mail me for more info or head over to the Purchasing FAQ page on my website.

Summer Pastures, 5x7

Summer Pastures

5x7, oil on board

One of the many beautiful vistas on the farms at Watkins Nurseries in Amelia.

Gunny on the Beach

Gunny's Beach House

The Lookout

Gunny was a 8 month old Yorkie I met on the beach in Nags Head this summer, filled with wonder and adored by his owners. His owners asked me to paint a piece of Gunny on the beach. These were two of my study paintings from the brainstorming process. It was too cute not to share on the blog.

What's up September?

I just sent out what was suppose to be my August Newsletter. Now it's the September Newsletter. :) No problem.

Take a look:

 

http://eepurl.com/EiLk1

In this newsletter:

1. Favorite Paintings of the Quarter
2. Prints Available on ImageKind.com
3. How to Commission a Painting
4. Tips on Choosing the Right Artwork for Your Home

Painting on the beach, Nags Head, NC

Last week my parents rented a beach house & invited the family for our 3rd annual beach vacation.

We did some biking, some sunset watching and of course a lot of swimming.

 

I brought my painting gear. I have a whole new respect for those everyday beach plein air painters. I  got more sand in my palette and on my paintings than I thought possible. My painting almost blew away once when I was packing up to leave. I think I even got a little sea sick while painting (on solid ground -- the beach) at Jockey's Ridge one particularly gusty day. Someone said the wind was in the middle 20's mph.

Despite all that painting on the beach, battling the wind and the sand beats painting in the studio any day! Below are a few of my favorites from the week. (Most of the sand has been scrapped off the paintings & a few touch-ups were made once I returned home.)

 

Afternoon at the Beach

8x10, oil on panel

sold

The Blue House on the Beach

9x12, oil on panel

sold

Clouds Over Jockey's Ridge

6x6, oil on panel

sold