Portrait

My parents had given us a wonderful Christmas present years ago: pastel portraits of our children. At the time, my parents were thinking of having the artist do a group picture, but he wisely suggested single portraits. It made sense that each child would want her own picture someday.

Looking back, I don't know why I didn't think to write him and tell him how much we enjoyed our daughters' portraits. I wished he could have done portraits of our grandchildren, but he passed away a number of years ago.

While studying photos of our grandchildren, I wondered about trying a pastel sketch. I had purchased a small set of pastels earlier this year, when our local art store went out of business, and had only used them one other time. I don't understand the medium at all, but I love the immediacy of pastels.

Yes, I floundered about for quite some time and finally called it quits. I can say, I'm most grateful for interlibrary loan and have requested Price's and Greene's books. Maybe I'll dare to attempt pastels again, after I've read through their books. Maybe...

Fussing

When I find I'm fretting, or fussing, too much over my icon, I try to remember Pearson's advice: "Do your very best at every stage and then let it go." I need to heed his words, or I won't move on.

Learning is a process and the only way to grow is to finish this icon and try another. His words again: "Even though you work hard at improving, don't forget to enjoy yourself while you paint. Fun is also holy."

Looking at others' work is a pleasant diversion after I've put the brush down. This artist's paintings always evoke a smile.

Pondering

I wonder what I miss when I'm not looking up.

Easter Vigil

This is a colored pencil drawing that I have placed on my drawing table. I would like to try painting this someday, but for now a drawing will have to do. I'm not certain if this is all that remains of this icon, or the book's publisher cropped it. Either way, it says everything about what is going to be occurring after sundown tonight.

This icon is the Nativity of Christ and is part of the Annunciation Cathedral iconostasis of the Moscow Kremlin. I'm guessing that this is an angel peering out from behind another angel's wing.

I am enamored with this angel's gaze. Though this is a Nativity icon, it still speaks deeply of the mystery of our faith. A new birth is about to occur. These forty days of Lent are about to end and we will once again be able to sing the Alleluia, and to say the Great Amen.

Finger Puppets

It's interesting your perception of time as a child, and that as an adult. If asked when I was little, the number of years between generations, I would have said 100. Asked today, at this point in life, my answer would be 7. At least that's all it seemed it was while reading my grandchild The Tale of Peter Rabbit. It felt as if it were just seven years ago that my daughters and I were reading about the little rabbit family and wondered how it would all end for Peter. In actuality, it was more like eighteen years ago.

There's a continued pleasure in watching family grow. In my children, and grandchildren, I see aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and others. Though many are no longer with us, they still can be found in family. It's a reminder that life is ongoing; life is generational.

And speaking of generations. These little finger puppets are many generations removed from Peter and his siblings, but they still bear some family resemblance. They'll be traveling home with our grandchildren after Easter Day celebrations. At their age, I guess it's okay to hope that it will make the drive home pass more quickly.

Lenten lessons

The Lenten season was certainly the right time to write my icon. It brought to light many things that I must work on, and I don't mean painting.

I was pleased that the hightlighting in the hand looked just as it should, but then noticed a brush hair in the center of the palm. Egg yolk has a real stick-to-it-ness. No amount of gentle coaxing worked to release the hair. The hand had to be scraped. I ended up repainting it, but it didn't look the same afterwards. The terrible twos set in and I left the icon for a day, not having the patience to paint anymore. Umm, and wasn't patience one of the virtues I had hoped to work on over Lent.

I painted a few hours on the following day, and realized I wasn't at all pleased with the work that I was doing. But what about my desire for a more grateful heart: Blessed be you God in good times, and in bad times.

And then there's humility: don't think I'll even talk about that. I remember reading that Michelangelo regretted carving his name into the Pieta. Others were imitating him and he wanted people to know this was his work. Iconographers never signed their work because they knew it wasn't about them.

Lent is a good time to reflect, and I'm sure as I continue to write this icon, there will be many things that will be brought into the light. But then, Blessed be you God...

Bluets

It's been a long and very white winter. Even though we've had a bit of rain and some warm days here and there, it will be at least another month before we see lawn.

My daughter and I forgot about the white landscape and winterlike temperatures when we came across this exhibit at the Portland Art Museum. Gail Spaien's botanical prints were not the only lovely part of the display. Beneath the paintings was a shelf lined with vases that contained flowering bulbs. I came back to the exhibit a number of times that afternoon to study her work.

This past spring I tried larger scale drawings of small wildflowers. Usually, I find myself pulling out the magnifying glass and then the microscope so I can have a closer look at things. There's that desire to fill the paper with every little part of that particular plant. I'm just waiting for the first sign of spring to begin drawing wildflowers again. I've missed it.

Sleep

Even though our daughters are young women now, when they're asleep, I can still see the face of a child. I wonder sometimes, how does God see us?

Persevering

It is time to start painting the icon's face: the most important part of any icon. There's still much to understand, but I'll persevere and begin another icon when Saint Nicholas is completed.

I am using claybord until I feel more comfortable with tempera. It's a bit of a struggle because the pigments do not dry as quickly on claybord, as on gesso. It's easy to lift off paint if it hasn't sufficiently dried. Another drawback with claybord is that the colors lack the jewel-like quality they have when painted on a gessoed surface. I was happy to find mention of this company on Wet Canvas.

We used squirrel hair brushes in our icon class and I was in need of some smaller sizes. I came across this company. The brushes are much like the ones we used. They hold the point so well that it's a joy to use them.

Prayer continues as I lean on Saint Nicholas to guide my hand.