When you walk along the beach close enough to the water to get your toes wet, any impression you make is washed away by the power of the waves.
Footprints in the sand
Footprints in the sand can be covered by a shifting in the wind. What influence can we have if our footsteps are washed away by the waves or blown away by the shifting sand?
Albatross ChickMonk SealWaves at Ka’ena Point
We hiked down Ka’ena Point on Saturday. We saw Albatross chicks and a Monk Seal. We hiked with a brand new sister missionary from New Zealand. Her kindness and spirit touched our hearts in a way that cannot be washed away by the waves and the sand.
Momma Pig with Little Pig.
I guess at the end of the day it is the people we love and influence for good that we have a lasting influence on. “I have been changed for good” by many people in my life. Perhaps a little help with some English words and a little information about art will influence other people for good and change their lives.
“And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people will be my people and thy God my God:” Ruth 2:16, 17
Watercolor sketch of 27th World Championship Fireknife
Without light there is darkness. Light in a painting creates value. Without light there would be no shadow side of an object. When light is blocked, we get cast shadows which create depth and interest in a painting. When you put the lightest light by the darkest dark, you draw attention to that spot. By manipulating values, you can guide the eye around your painting.
We went to the World Fireknife Competition. We watched the Womens’s Competition and the Men’s Preliminaries. How would I capture the energy of the drums and the fire spinning in the darkness. A painting becomes much more than what you see with your eyes. The experience of being at the competition adds a depth to your painting. You remember the beat of the drums and the smell of the fire, the flame spitting on the floor and streaking across in a line of fire. You wonder about the properties of fire as you see the contestants put the flaming Fireknife on their feet and to their lips.
‘I tried to capture the flickering of the flame by letting my brush dance across the watercolor paper. I loved capturing the form of the dancer by the light cast on his torso and the back edge getting lost in the darkness.
Clouds over the ocean in Hawaii.
As artists, we try to capture what we feel and see around us. There was a quote by President Henry B. Eyring which was displayed with his watercolors at BYU Idaho: “My motivation in all of my varied creative work seems to have been a feeling of love. I felt the love of a Creator who expects His children to become like Him—to create and to build.”
A sketch from 2 1/2” x 4 1/4” sketch book. “Where Are You Headed?”
”…..but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light,…” Isaiah 60:19 So as plants turn to catch the light, we should turn our lives towards the Savior Jesus Christ and towards more kindness, service and watching out for one another. Mahalo.
Person Number One: My husband and I were checking out a lighthouse in San Pedro, California while we were delivering our car to Long Beach and going to see the National Watercolor Show. “Not one bit. It hasn’t changed one bit.” We looked behind us and there was a man following us, walking on the grass and talking to us. He came up and started telling us that he had been there 40 or 50 years ago. He had a Navy Veteran hat on.
Be careful who you talk to in parks because this guy ended up in my painting. The sun was gleaming off his white beard and I asked him if I could take a picture of him and paint him in watercolor. His wife and daughter came up and also started chatting with us. So we took their phone number and I sent them a copy after the painting was done.
Step 1: Watercolor by Sherry Meidell
This Painting was a combination of of two of the pictures I took. I like to combine people with places. I loved this old light house but it became the perfect backdrop for this gentleman’s portrait. I did thumbnails of what I wanted the finished painting to look like and then sketched directly on the watercolor paper. I wanted to tie the painting together with a wash that would start with the sky and move right into his beard. I put thin strips of masking tape to save some of the white hairs of his beard. I had to be very careful when I took them off so as not to pull up the surface of the paper.
Step 2: Adding orange on the roof and skin tones
Even though the shadow side of the building was white, it had to be darker than the dark blue hat in the sun. The orange of the roof tied into the burnt sienna in the shadow part of the face.
Step 3: Adding some warmth to the beard
The sun was so intense on the beard so I wanted to add some warmth by adding some yellow. I wish I would have left the letters on his hat white and just glazed over them with a light yellow. I lost some of the intensity.
Finished Watercolor “Not One Bit” on 300 lb. Canson Watercolor paper.
So paintings are done one step at a time. I took a watercolor workshop from Charles Reid and he said if you don’t know what to paint next on your painting, don’t paint. Wait until you know where you’re going with it. I will look at my painting long enough and then it will pop into my head what I’m supposed to paint next. And there is always something else I have to fix after I think I’m done.
Person Number Two: I walked into a building on campus to see if I could find one of the secretaries I had been emailing here at BYU-Hawaii. I went up to the girl that was sitting in the lobby and asked if she could direct me to where the secretary was. The girl asked if I was an artist and I said yes. She then asked if I was a watercolor artist. I wasn’t sure how she knew to ask me that since we were pretty new to the campus and Hawaii. Then she asked if I had been to Nauvoo. I had met this young woman when she was a missionary in Nauvoo. Me and Becky Hartvigsen had been back there for a show at the Havenlight Gallery in downtown Nauvoo. The sister missionary had watched me sketch while we were waiting to go on a tour of the John Taylor Historic home. What were the odds that we would meet up here so far from Nauvoo. It let me know that the Lord was aware of me here in this beautiful place. And maybe as an artist I could somehow influence people for good.
Person Number Three: We were taken for a tour around campus by a lovely, kind lady. She told us how to say the Hawaiian vowels. She stopped along the tour to pick flowers for me and tell me the names. She welcomed us with great kindness. I wrote her an email to thank her for the amazing tour. She lifted me up again by her kind email. “Yes, Hawaii has its unique beauty like all the many other creations of the Lord across the earth. You and your husband add to that beauty with your goodness and willingness to serve here. You also have the wonderful talent to capture the beauty as seen from your eyes and share it with others. Mahalo and Aloha Friday.” On the tour we had checked the Family Tree website and I never would have guessed. She is my Polynesian cousin.
‘The scripture for this week is Matthew 7:12 “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”
Years ago one of our boys tied a toy rubber man on the back of our van. It traveled on camping trips to Zion National Park, adventures in the Uintah Mountains and a van-packed trip to the eastern United States. Then the boys got worried that after joining us for so many adventures, the little man might accidentally fall off and get lost on the road. So he was brought in to the van and tied to the rear view mirror. So instead of the fancy dice or some other distracting item hanging from the rear view mirror, we had the little man.
When the first boy left for his mission, the little man was tucked into his suitcase and traveled down to the MTC and out into the mission field. The little man traveled to Canada, Brazil, France, and California. He also traveled to the Philippines. The night before my son left to come home from the Philippines, he was frantically searching through his suitcase to find the little man. His companion thought he had lost his mind. “I’ve got to find the little man.”
“What little man?”
”My little rubber man.” Son number three came home from the Philippines with no little man until he unpacked his suitcase and in a special zippered compartment was the “little man.” We all cheered.
The family traveled to California so that boy number five could see boy number four before boy number five left on his mission. Boy number four had permission from his mission president to eat lunch with his family. Boy number four was so excited to see his family. “Oh my family is coming.” We only had an hour to eat with him.
The family-packed van had no idea how to find boy number four in the crazy roads and freeways around Rancho Cucamonga. It was a time before GPS but we had cell phones. We called boy number four on the phone. He didn’t know how to get around on the freeways around Rancho Cucamonga either but he could hear the heated discussion in the van on which way to go and which road to take and turn here or don’t turn here. Boy number four thought “Oooooh MY FAMILY IS C O M I N G.” Van found boy and there was much hugging and boy number four passed the little man to boy number five.
So the night before our mission, the boys asked, “Where is the Little Man?” So we found and packed three of them. The son who lost him in the Philippines said to make sure we put it in a locked box.
You may want to know what we are doing on our mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One thing is observing some Utahns in Hawaii Snorkeling. We thought it was a nice technique.
Utahn observed snorkeling at Sharks Cove in Hawaii.Some notes in my sketch book.
Here is my scripture for this week: “And if men come into me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble, and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” Ether 12:27. Driving on unfamiliar roads in Honolulu can make you feel like a weak thing.
Can you find the grandchild in the midst of the chaos?
I’ve been creating a lot of art but not taking the time to do much cleaning, just jumping to the next project. It was time to clean it because I’m leaving my studio to go on a mission for my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. So this is the before picture and this…….
After days and weeks of extensive cleaning, you can now see the floor.
is the after picture. Hmmmm. Still better than before.
“February Fisherman” down at the Dixie Invitational.
I was able to to check out a couple of my paintings before I left. I caught this painting down in St. George.
“Looky There” hanging down at the National Watercolor Society Membership Show.
We had to put our car on a slow boat to paradise. The trip started in Long Beach, California and ended in Honolulu, Hawaii. So I could spend some time in San Pedro and really study and look at the paintings in the National Watercolor Society’s Membership show, which I was so pleased to have been juried into. It was amazing to be in a show with some great watercolor artists such as Dawn Mitchell and Bev Jozwiak. I had time to look at and study each painting.
Sketch in watercolor of “MTC Tulips”
Then we were off to the Missionary Training Center In Provo where young returned missionaries taught us how to turn on our cell phones and look up bible videos on LDS.org. Some of us needed more help than others. We were able to meet some amazing senior missionaries heading to far away places with different assignments.
The above painting was a gift for one of our new found friends. So here is a scripture for you all from the Bible: Luke 12:27 “Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you…?”
I love tulips. You can see them shoot upward through the spring snow. No tulips over here. No spring snow either. There are ukulele lessons.
“Onion Street” 60” wide original and available in giclee prints 20” wide.
Onion Street is available in a giclee print. The original can be seen at an 18 month show hanging at the West Bountiful City Offices with many of my other paintings. Drop in when the office is open to see the show.
‘There is a lot of history that has taken place on Onion Street. Both past and present. I hope I captured some of the spirit of this place. It is a fine place to raise frogs, snakes, friendships, boys and girls. It’s a place to call home.
