Against the Faintly Lavender Sky

Against the Faintly Lavender Sky

I have been reading more again lately, and I recommend it! To my dismay, I had found myself going to my phone for beauty and inspiration, and it is very unsatisfying. (Not to mention, addicting.) And honestly, I have so many books I want to read! My art book stack is enormous, and I find so much help and inspiration in those pages. 

4" x 4"

Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep cradled wood panel

Edges painted black

Click here to view or purchase on my website. 

Yesterday I finished reading Re-digging Art’s Foundations: Essays on Gospel and Art, by David Thistlethwaite. I really loved this book, though it was challenging reading at times. It may be that I have let my college/post-college reading level slip a bit, you know? There are hot-pink colored-pencil highlights on at least half of the pages, I would say, and I want to revisit the book while the concepts are still percolating in my mind. 

How Beauty Will Save the World: Recovering the Power of the Arts for the Christian Life by Winfield Bevins was next in my queue, though, and I started it last evening. This book is a much easier read, but has many quotable, encouraging things to say, particularly for me as an artist who is serious about both my faith and my art. Winfield Bevins also mentions many other authors, several of whom are already on my reading list. (Thistlethwaite also mentioned other authors and artists, and I am excited to add them to my studies, too.) 

And, you know, I do read just for fun, too. My fiction reading recently has been The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Series by Beth Brower. My sparkling daughter recommended this series, and it has kept us laughing as we compare notes on it. It is quick, easy reading, and I look forward to the ninth volume! 

But, of course, the reading that does the most to shape my life every single day is from my Bible. Today, a combination of the art books and my Bible have spurred me on in my painting time, and to this little tree painting as I try to share the beauty my Creator has made that inspires me. This morning was a smooth, overcast sky, and I was delighting in the tree shapes against the faintly lavender sky. Can you see that here?

Psalm 90:17

Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us;

establish for us the work of our hands—

establish the work of our hands!

Or in the King James version:

Psalm 90:17

And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.