Magenta, For Heaven's Sake

Magenta, For Heaven's Sake

My son came to our house over Thanksgiving this winter, and I got to pick him up from the airport in Indianapolis. I love picking him up, because then we have a good chunk of time to catch up before his visit gets crazy with friends and so on. As I drove out of the "arrivals" area of the airport, I got a message from a potential client wanting large, colorful abstract paintings. Right up my alley, right? (Just so you aren't too worried about my driving habits, my son helped me answer the messages on my phone. I just drove.) I found that I only had one large painting available, and I knew that gave me reason to start painting more large works. So right after Thanksgiving I started on this painting. 


48" x 48"
Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas

Click here to purchase via my website.

You know, I couldn't get it right! I knew I had reason to paint this large, colorful painting, but it just wouldn't work out. I started out, as I usually do, with color combinations and a general idea of the composition I want to use, but the painting just wouldn't pull together.

A couple of weeks later we were in the pre-Christmas-break-scramble, and I was still working on the large canvas in the middle of my family room. By then, though, my direction with the painting had changed considerably. I was working through the concepts of Christmas as spiritual war - GOD rescuing human prisoners through HIS coming to earth as a baby. There were also personal spiritual battles going on during that time that were significant, and I knew they would be on my painting. I knew I would have to be using black paint, and I don't use much black except on the wrapped edges of my canvases! 

Let me tell you, it still would not come together for me, no matter how long I studied it and what colors I added or subtracted. It felt disjointed and angry. (Hmm. If you ever hear an artist say that their feelings or thoughts appear in their work, believe them!) 

Fast forward to January, and my Beloved Husband was awaiting surgery for an injury, my niece was very ill, and I was struggling to catch up with homemaking and business after traveling for Christmas. I felt overwhelmed, tired, and short-tempered. I was really not acting like "good Christian people". 

But to my surprise, my words on social media seemed to be touching people. My reaching out to comfort others came fairly easily. The very fact of my slowness, weakness, and pain seemed to be helping others to reach out to the Heavenly Father, as I was trying to do. Here is what was happening: my Heavenly Father was taking my weakness and difficulties and making something beautiful out of them! 

So, I started again - ready to just paint over the whole canvas and start over. But first, I tried glazing the whole thing with magenta paint. I fully realize that the market for a gigantic magenta painting might be small, but finally I am painting without worrying about my market. The whole "mess", the struggle, is covered and made into something different. You can still see the struggles on the canvas. There are too many focal points, if you are thinking of a normal composition. And it is magenta, for heaven's sake. But I think it is done. I think it is a good representation of my mess, and my Heavenly Father's ability to make something worthwhile out of it all. 

And, magenta looks great in my house! 

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 'But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, catastrophes, persecutions, and in pressures, because of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.'