THE BLOG
Artist on a Mission – Books from a Friend
I Love Diane Turners Oil Paintings. I have a couple of her originals hanging in my home. She calls the mountains above our home “her mountains”. These are mountains that have caught my eye everyday of my life since I was four years old. So I give her a hard time and say these are not your mountains, they are my mountains. She has earned the right to call them her mountains because of the beautiful way she renders them. She can capture the shifting light on those mountains at all times of the day.
When Diane heard that I was heading to Hawaii on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and that I would need to brush up on my oil painting skills, she offered to send three of her favorite books with me. So “Fill Your Oil Paintings With Light and Color” by Kevin D. MacPherson, “Oils” by Trevor Chamberlain, and “Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting” by John F. Carlson made their way over to Hawaii in a suitcase loaded with watercolors and watercolor paper and brushes. She said it was a way to at least send her books on a mission.
‘I think of her every time I open the pages and start reading…..”Edges: To create a sharp edge between areas of different colors,…..”. This quote is from the book by Trevor Chamberlain. The gifts we give to others can touch their lives. These books from Diane continue to touch my life. And the knowledge gained from these books will add to the lives of the students I teach.
The scripture for today is Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
Artist on a Mission -The Power
Where does the power come from? The Power to create? Why do I have this driving urge to capture a scene with paint and brush. Why do I carry my sketch book around with me and with quick marks of a pen sketch the people around me?
On Oahu there are big power lines that bring power up to the North Shore. Sometimes the weight of the lines cause the poles to lean just like the constant wind from the ocean causes the trees to bend landward. My husband and I went to the Honolulu Museum of Art yesterday. We saw creations of art from all over the world and from all ages, statues of Buddha and masks made out of wood and horse hair from the Iroquois people. We saw paintings by Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh and Mary Cassatt. I was filled with the desire to paint. I just wanted to spend my time creating beauty. Or at least trying to capture that beauty.
People say artists are born with such a talent but I like to say artists are born with a great love of making marks on paper and canvas. When you love something that much you keep working at it and the more you work at it, the greater joy you get from the creation.
So where does the power come from? Probably from a deep love. When we voluntarily expend all our time and energy on something we tend to love it. When parents expend all of their energy on loving and training and caring for their children, they gain a deep love for those children. I guess that is why people tend to love their missions so much, because of the time and love and service they give to others. Between all the things we have to do in life, it is good to find some time to create.
Romans 35-39 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
#artist #creativity #art #oil painting #sketch book
Artist on a Mission – When is a Painting Done?
When is my painting finished? That is a question that only you as the artist can answer. The above painting is not done but as I looked at it from a distance I love the white in the painting. So to finish the painting I might lose some of the nice whiteness of the paper. Also as I work on the painting I can change where the focus is. Just a slight adjustment can change the feel of the painting and where the viewer is going to look.
‘I’ve always said you know the painting is done when it starts to sing. Everything has come together on the painting, the value, the color and the design. I keep working on a painting until I can see nothing else on the painting that has to be done. Sometimes fear keeps us from finishing a painting. We are worried that one more mark will ruin the watercolor forever. And sometimes it does, but it is worth the chance to create exactly what you want. Maybe a glaze over part of the painting directs the eye to the figure. Maybe you have to lift off a bit of color or create a darker mark somewhere. You have to move forward with some faith.
I love the scripture in 2 Timothy 1:7 that says: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” So we move forward on the painting much like we move forward in life, hoping that the end product will be better than where we are right now. We have the power of the education we have acquired and the years of practice and effort from the previous paintings we’ve done and we move forward with confidence because your confidence shows up in every stroke you put on your paper. If you don’t have the years of experience, then you go off of the love of the process and the desire to improve. It becomes a life long pursuit.
#whenisyourpaintingfinished #watercolor #artist
Artist on a Mission – The Students Instructing the Teacher
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‘You can learn a lot from those that you try to teach. You can learn of courage to leave family and fly to a place so different from your home. Perseverance to keep learning a new language when your lips won’t wrap around the unfamiliar consonants.
Determination to give a presentation when the subject brings you memories that cause tears to flow from your eyes and words to bunch up in your throat. Endurance to keep trying when every other word has to be looked up in a dictionary.
You enjoy the book “Holes” all over again while you hear it read with a Mongolian accent. You remember the feeling of finding joy in the adventure of working and striving and sweating to gain an education. You see what the expressions of gratefulness and appreciation do for others. And you see what the end results are of hard work and practicing. The teacher also ends up with an education.
”….. and that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings he doth bestow upon you.” Alma 34:38
Artist on a Mission – Iosepa
Its nice to learn a bit of the history of a place, to hear of the people who have walked where you are walking today. Joseph F. Smith came to Hawaii on his first mission as a young 15 year old who had lost both his father and mother. A stranger in a strange land who did not speak the language and didn’t know anyone. I wanted to capture in this painting, the love that he had for this land and the people.
‘He got deathly sick and was carefully nursed back to health by his “Hawaii Mother”. There is a statue honoring the love and care this woman gave. The tie of love is strong. Elder Oakes came over with his wife to speak at the BYU-Hawaii Devotional. Sister Oakes is a great granddaughter of Joseph F. Smith. When she got up to speak she was wearing a gift from the descendants of Ma Mahuhi’i. We form great bonds of love when we care for others. Bonds of love that can go down and have an effect for generations.
Matthew 25: 40 ….”Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Artist on a Mission – Chance Encounters
We had to get our car checked in Kaneohe which meant we had about two and a half hours waiting time with nowhere to go. The lady at the car repair place was kind enough to give us a ride to the mall. It was early so all the stores were closed but the mall was a hopping place.
In one corner were seniors exercising and stretching. Upstairs was like a race track with people walking counter clockwise. You had to pick up your step and merge into the traffic to get to the other side of the mall hall. And to top everything else, we came across a preschool graduation. We watched the kids sing and perform but a lot of the energy came from the parents and grandparents. The kids were entirely wrapped up in the energy and love of those who were watching them. And after the program, they were wrapped up in leis.
Matthew 18:4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of God.
Deuteronomy 6:6-7 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house and and when thou liest down, and when thou riseth up.