A Thrill of Hope

A Thrill of Hope

"Here come the French horns!" "Look at how fast the strings players are moving their fingers on those parts!" Those are phrases that I suspect my longsuffering family has heard me say each time they have accompanied me to a concert. Well, last night I attended a Christmas concert by the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, and I loved it! As is often the case, several of the pieces were songs that I had played in Christmas concerts when I played clarinet (including the bass and contrabass clarinets) in high school and college. I know and love every note in some of those compositions.  

There was a vocalist in the concert, and she was a pleasure to hear, too. She was equally at home with pop and jazz styles, and with classical songs. Her performance of O Holy Night brought me to tears. I have never especially liked that piece, but the complexities of the melody really stood out to me at the concert, and then I also began to pay attention to the poetic turn of phrase in the verses. Beautiful! (I have to admit, the Overture to Polar Express that followed suffered in comparison... which really surprised me.)

$100.00 plus shipping and handling

7.2" x 7.2" (one of three coordinating works)

Painted with the finest quality acrylic heavy-body paint on hand-made, prepared wood panel, rounded corners

Click here to view or purchase on my website.

For over a week I have been working on small works painted on wood panels that were prepared quite a few years ago when I was starting to paint a lot more. I have enjoyed working on the harder surface and tried to incorporate some of the things I have been working on lately on my larger works on canvas in these smaller paintings. Though it is difficult to see in this photo, the painting has quite a bit of metallic and interference paint that shimmers in the right lighting, and it is loaded with texture and layers of color. This painting is one of a group of three that I will be sharing in the next few days, and I will include a sneak peek of all three at the end of this post. They definitely work as a group, though I think each painting works individually too. 

Each year, Christmas seems to take on a different focus for me. This year the focus is on who Jesus is - God, the Creator, human, and our Redeemer all at the same time. It is a very complex picture from several sections of the Bible, (Colossians 1:15 - 20, John 1:1-5, John 14, Isaiah 53, and many others), and it has been influencing me as I have painted. These three paintings included words from Hebrews 1:3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of His nature, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Well, I don't know how to explain how this directly tied in with O Holy Night and with the paintings I have been working on, so I hope it will communicate with you without my words. I hope you can see His radiance, and his sacrifice, and the Thrill of Hope that arrived on our planet on that first holy night. 

The Weary World Rejoices

A Thrill of Hope

Long Lay the World