Favorite Paintings of 2013

1. Light to My Path (available)

See this painting in progress

2. Mine Shaft Ruins, 16x20" sold

This painting was actually completed the end of 2012, but it was the influential on many other paintings of 2013

Progress pictures of this painting

3. Summer's Glow (available)

From small to large - Progress pictures

4. Crimson and Copper sold

More on this painting

5. December Dusk, 16x16" - First painting of 2013 (available)

See this painting in progress and Completed

6. Snow Day (available)

Blog post on this painting

Top 13 of 2013

 Happy New Year!

A few of the blogs I read listed the top blog posts from the previous year. Figured I'd tag along...

Top 13 of 2013

13. White Rock Creek

Edit: So it seem either by user-error or other means my data gatherer added this post from 2012 to my top 13 in 2013. And obviously I didn't proof-read thoroughly enough to catch it. Hope you don't mind if I leave it in the post -- since I don't have time to redo it at the moment. :) Number 8 seems to have slipped too. My bad. 

12. Inspiration from Howard Pyle

 

11. The Best Thing That Happened to Me...

 

 10. In the meantime...

 

9. Morning at the Office

 

8. a little obsessed? maybe.

 

7. Crimson and Copper 8x6

 

6. Painting on the beach, Nags Head, NC

 

5. The Midlothian Apothecary 

4. The Long Way, 11x14 

 

3. Published: Robious Corridor Magazine

 

2. The Carving Tree, 9x12 

 

1. Published: 2 paintings of Midlothian

It's been a wonderful year. Thanks for reading and Happy 2014!

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.