Hidden Treasure

Hidden Treasure

It is the 30^th day of the 30paintings in 30 days challenge for September 2017, and I think this year I have come the closest to doing all 30 of them. Considering what all has happened this month, it is remarkable to have gotten 27 paintings done, and I would guess that all of the artists participating would say the same thing.

I really wanted my last painting to be spectacular. My hope was that everything that I have learned and all of my comfort in my studio would come together and I would create a MASTERPIECE. Well, I am beginning to wonder whether I will recognize a masterpiece if I ever do paint one! Sometimes it takes weeks to begin to really see what is happening with a painting. I don’t really know how to explain for those of you who are not artists, but I can get so involved with the details that I lose track of the big picture.

No longer available

12" x 12"

Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas

Ready to hang

My daughter contacted me today to ask me to pray with her. She had been up very late intending to sleep in today, and then get mountains of homework done. But then she was awakened early by friends who had a sudden need to go to the hospital! (One of these young newlyweds needed emergency surgery, and the other passed out and became dehydrated at the hospital, so it was a blessing to them that she could go.) My daughter is in seminary, and she is studying in order to know her GOD better, and in order to be more able to serve her brothers and sisters in whatever GOD would call her to do. So here was a dilemma – she has so much homework, and today was her scheduled day to do it, but friends called… how to be sure which was the thing she was to do today?

This painting is about that idea. I have prayed for her all day, and have been thinking about following God’s call when it is a little hard to know whether it is really Him, and whether He will make up for lost opportunity if you follow what you believe to be His voice. There is a darkness surrounding the focal point of this work, and I felt like I was painting a cave with a treasure to be found inside. The color is very complex, and it was a challenge to figure out what colors I would use, and then how to make them ‘say’ that a treasure was found in the midst of complexity. And then, how can I tie all of the color and composition together so that it shows the concept I want to express? I couldn’t quite see the big picture.

While my daughter is not yet caught up with the homework she has to finish (as far as I know, anyway), I know she made the right choice in accompanying her friends, and I am SO, SO proud of her! Here are a couple of verses that came to mind as I thought about her dilemma.

Philippians 2:13 “For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose.”

Philippians 4:13 (HCSB) “I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me.”