MAJESTY...

Well, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We got our tree over the weekend, which is our tradtion.  Even though it seems early to some, I like being able to enjoy the seaon longer.  I just love decorating for Christmas...the lights...the warm, cozy feeling of it all. 

The kids were out of school an extra day...a snow day!  It was all of a trace on the ground, and the schools were closed.  If we lived somewhere else, like Montana or Chicago, that wouldn't have happened.  But it does make it exciting.

I also took a bit of time to paint.  This is what I came up with...

I think with recently owning our own horse has made me even more drawn to the majesty of the animal.

I will be putting prints and the orignal up for sale on Etsy!

GIVE THANKS

I just want to say THANK YOU to all of you that have taken the time to visit my blog and to those that have taken the time to comment...it means so much to me.  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend.

and I wanted to share with you this fabulous video created by The Brave Girls Club.  I get their daily affirmations in my e-mail and they just posted this video...which brought a tear to my eye and thought I'd share with you.

THE SONG OF ANGELS...

I just finished my latest piece I title "THE SONG OF ANGELS"...

In this first image it's harder to see the words on her halo because of the shine of the silver...

I love the silver...even from a distance it makes it "pop". I also added silver to her wings. 

Here are some close-ups...I really distressed it after I finished. I felt it really called out for distressing.  It looked so old...yet with fresh paint looked too new.

in this last image you can see the words in her halo better...it says:

For I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.  romans 8:18

I will be putting prints and the original up for sale on etsy soon!

FALL ON YOUR KNEES

I've had this image of Mary and Jesus that I printed on my art desk for a long time.  I was thinking I wanted to paint it at some point and didn't know when.  I just thought It was so beautiful...the glow that was on the faces of Mary and the angels as they looked at baby Jesus.  So, here is the beginning...

The song that kept going through my head the whole time I was painting it...over and over...was Oh Holy Night.  And so after painting it, and realizing there was a lot of empty space, especially above them...I thought if I could incorporate that song somehow into the painting, that would be cool.  So I carved a verse into gel medium and after it dried, painted the words.

Here are some close-ups...

and here is the finished piece...I ended up putting more gel medium which I let dry clear onto the sides as well to balance out the texture.

To me, this song is one of the most moving.  Every year, when I hear it sung well...with the crescendo of "fall on your knees, hear the angels voices"  I get a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye.  It's so powerful and you can just imagine...

JANE

These very beginning pictures always look so...what do I want to say?  Awful.  Maybe that's too harsh...Bad?  But it is what it is...the beginning.  Certainly not the end.

Here she is transformed on my wall.  I use this wall a lot because it has natural light coming through the door and because it's narrow there is less distraction.

and here is the finished piece...

a little wild...yet gentle and natural.

I layered papers in the background.  When I do that I always paint so much over them that the original paper is nowhere to be seen...but the texture is what I like.

I still haven't named this piece...I am thinking "Jane" because she reminds me of Jane, the love of Tarzan.