"Thistle" by T. V. Pigenot |
"helleborus orientalus", 2004 |
My first-ever watercolor emerged under the expert eye of a British painter. She guided our night-school group through the selection, sketching, and painting of plants at the Cambridge Botanic Gardens. She taught us to buy the best quality brushes and paint we could "because you'll hardly fall in love with art using inferior materials." I still travel with my Winsor & Newton paintbox.
When we arrived in the UK, I figured no one knew who I was. I'd wanted to learn painting so I introduced myself an artist. Strangers accepted that at face value and I signed up for art courses. This first painting makes me smile with fond memories of intense, focused hours, playing with pencil, paint, and brushes on exquisite paper. The hellebore painting marked the first time I'd brought flowers to life in watercolor.
I studied with other top artists. (Who doesn't want "Cambridge professor" on their resume?) I learned willow weaving with Mary Butcher, the first non-royal female admitted into The Worshipful Company of Basketmakers (a guild established in 1569), bending blue and green and pink willow stems into shapes. I sketched tin cans and old shoes under an outstanding pencil artist. I even persevered through an eight-week figure drawing course that shocked, taught, and settled my heart. Humans are beautiful, though figure drawing was not about the math formulas on perspective that I'd expected when I signed up. (However, I'd promised God that whatever he brought my way, I would do. Opening that classroom door in all innocence, obedience was a stretch. I learned about compassion, human adaptability, and art, and was thankful when the course ended.)
I wasn't very good. But the pleasure remains alive every time I see what I made.
"Red Tree" by Casey Klahn |
In what ways has visual art shaped your soul or expanded your appreciation of Creator God and his world?
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*I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together! Psalm 34:1-3 ESV
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