Category Archives: Art

New Painting – AND MORE!

Watch my new oil painting come to life! “Cardinal on a Tree Branch“, my latest painting that features a cardinal; a bird that is spiritually meaningful to many people and is simply delightful in nature, a truly peaceful and beautiful bird.

This painting will be the featured art in my new book and displayed on the cover. The book is now FINISHED! It is ahead of schedule by several months! The 2021 collection “50 Oil Paintings Inspired by Nature” is available as free time lapse videos, prints to buy, and soon a published book. It follows two previous collections (2019 “50 Oil Paintings Inspired by Savannah, Georgia” and 2020 “50 Oil Paintings Inspired by my Christian Faith“.

I also offer some fashion inspired by art from the previous collections. I plan to add some new designs from the 2021 Nature collection, and I’ll definitely include this cardinal. I know that some of you love cardinals and have been hoping for a new one. I understand because I love cardinals too, and they mean something personal to me and my family.

So the “and MORE” is the celebration that my 2021 art collection is FINISHED! WOOT!!! This feels awesome! I also wanted to announce that I’ll soon have the book and fashion parts of it done. But, I’ll hold back on the reveal of what the new collection for 2022 will be. I’ll be starting on the first painting of that series soon, so stay tuned!

Thank you for being a part of this journey. One more set of 50 done toward my lifetime goal of 1k finished paintings!

Bad days

Watch this deer oil painting come to life in 2 minutes, and then see below for the real life video I took today!

Even when humanity is having a bad day, a dark day, a day of violence and unspeakable horror, nature goes on as if untroubled by the woes of mankind. Chaos and evil may rule our minds, yet the seasons pass undisturbed, giving us hope that we will feel peace once again. This is what I saw today. There is a magical moment at the end when eye contact is made. May you too experience this second, in which your breath stops, as you too make eye contact with peace on Earth, as fleeting as that beauty may be.

Protected and Loved

Watch this oil painting of an angel guiding a child out of danger in 2 minutes (time lapse)

Sometimes this world throws so much darkness, chaos, confusion, fear, malice, violence and dangerous, heartless tyranny at us that there’s very little left to say. In these times, I feel opposing forces vying for my attention: faith and fear. Fear associates closely with suspicion, resentment, bitterness, anger and ultimately hate. So I must choose faith. Faith leads to trust, forgiveness, grace, peace and ultimately love.

The fires may rage, but we are delivered. We are like this little child led by our Guardian Angel. Or, maybe we are that angel to someone else. We can focus on the fire or believe in deliverance from it. When we believe that we are protected and loved, it is well with our soul.

Sunday

Watch this oil painting of a pink flower come to life in 36 seconds (time lapse)

I let the painting experience flow and evolve, and I liked the way it went: starting with an abstract background layer, then adding a middle layer of leaves/foliage, and ending with the foreground main subject layer of the flower. I later repeated this technique with intention (planning, instead of just stumbling upon it while “free painting”). It’s become one of my signature styles.

Sometimes we try too hard, when life would be so much easier if we let things flow naturally. And then, we can learn who we are and do more of that. As we wrap up another Sunday, may we reflect on who we are, and let ourselves be that person. It’s all that is ever asked of us – just be who we were born to be, the best that we know how.

Future Unknown

Watch this oil painting “Peach tree Hurricane” come to life in under 2 minutes (time lapse)

I painted this after my first year in Georgia when we had to evacuate for a hurricane. It was scary, as my husband needed to work the late shift and we couldn’t leave until he was home. But, we got out in plenty of time, and the only damage to the property consisted of a few missing shingles on the roof and the top of the gazebo was torn to shreds. Since we were renting, the property wasn’t ours, and the homeowner didn’t seem to care about that top because there was no replacement. That’s fine, because I was happy it was off! It was ugly and I prefer the open sky. I strung some pretty lights on the frame and when we stay out after dark it looks beautiful (in my eyes anyway!).

I’m still glad that we stayed away until we got the all clear to return. It would have been scary to have heard the gazebo roof tearing and the house roof shingles ripping… we’d probably have thought the house was being shredded! On the way home we saw downed peach trees in long stretches of the journey. It was sad to see. But the orchards bounced back quickly. It was amazing how fast the area went from dangerously stormy to bright and sunny again. 

That’s how life and nature work. We don’t know what the future holds, the journey is unknown. But we do know that the sun comes out before a storm, and returns after it.

Another Delight!

Watch this hummingbird oil painting come to life in 1 minute (time lapse)

This is another of my hummingbird paintings, that I painted for a children’s book, but my blog post today is about the same kind of hummingbird I shared with you yesterday. There’s another surprise video that I took today! You might remember that in the past I said that birds come to me when I sing? 

It was something I discovered by accident when we were raising guinea fowl and I couldn’t get them to come back to their shelter at night. I tried calling for them, but one day when I was outside singing just for the love of singing, I noticed that they responded to my voice and came nearer to me. In fact, they kept coming toward me as if in some sort of spell… it was wonderful! So, instead of yelling my fool head off and those birds ignoring me, in the evenings I’d sing a hymn and they’d come home from wherever they’d been hiding in the fields!

As I’ve previously shared, we used to have a hobby farm and had to sell it when the company my husband worked for left the country and ghosted our town, leaving everyone unemployed. We had to start over and it’s taking us a long time, but we focus on each step. Anyway, the guinea fowl days are gone, but I discovered that wild song birds and hummingbirds also respond to my singing! 

I’ve hoped to capture this experience for you, and I’m getting closer to doing that. I have a video to share… it’s not quite the same exhilarating experience I have when I don’t have a phone held up (they don’t like that). If I’m still and don’t have a phone held up, a hummingbird will come within INCHES of my face, hover, and stare with direct eye contact, his tiny eyes locking with mine. It’s kind of scary actually. I never know if he might actually fly directly into my nose one of these days! 

But so far they don’t do this when I have a camera/phone held up. I could try a tripod in the future, but that might spook them too. We’ll see. This time there were two hummingbirds, but they look identical so I don’t know if you’re seeing the same little guy or if one flew in/out and the other then flew in/out. But you’ll see that when I sing, they fly out from wherever they were hiding. Isn’t it amazing? Stay tuned after the video, I have an update!

So, while I was playing the video back, I could hear the chittering sounds that the hummingbirds make. I was confused because I didn’t recall that being in the video. It wasn’t! Since I could clearly hear HIM, just outside the patio windows, he must have heard me as well, via the video! He chittered all the way through my singing on the video and stopped when the video ended! 

Hopefully I can capture it on video when the hummingbirds come near my face and look directly into my eyes. So far this is as close I’ve been able to get to video taping this experience. I hope it was fun to see!

BEAUTIFUL Surprise for You!

Before I show you the surprise, watch this hummingbird oil painting come to life in 1 minute (time lapse). This is inspired by our real life feeder on the patio, and this is one of the types of hummingbird friends who visit us… that’s a clue for what I’m about to surprise you with…

but first, see the real life inspiration for my painting in action in this 24 second video I took…

So, now you know that the hummingbird looks like… and I can share what happened. My daughter bought me a new phone that has an AMAZING camera (thank you, thank you, thank you!). I wanted to try out the camera and wouldn’t you know it, yesterday there was a rainbow… and a second lighter arc appeared… a double rainbow! Some people say that they have never seen a double rainbow, others say that they are rare, but they seem to follow me wherever I go. Anyway….

I was taking pictures of the double rainbow when a hummingbird flew into the shot! He “photo-bombed” my pictures and it was BREATHTAKING! I couldn’t believe how my new camera caught his flight and I could zoom in and crop it to a detailed picture of his flight path. I put a short film together, and next I will post the photos separately so you can see them more clearly. 

I hope you enjoy your surprise. This really is something very special!  When you see this, don’t you feel that this world still has very wonderful and hopeful things?

Do you need rest?

Watch oil painting “Docked Boat” come to life in under 2 minutes (time lapse)

I blogged about this painting in the post called “Painting Rest“, which I invite you to read if you missed it when I first shared it. Tonight, I am in need of rest myself, so I’ll say very little. I spent the day catching up on dishes, cooking, and preparing for my next painting- the last painting in the 2021 collection “50 Oil Paintings Inspired by Nature“. I feel the winds of spiritual change in the air and it’s caused me to pause in my work. I wasn’t ready for this one to end.

When I finish this next painting I will paint in a new direction for the 2022 theme. It seems that what I paint mirrors my life (and my life mirrors what I paint), and sometimes even seems to foreshadow what’s to come, or perhaps manifest the future. This is something that took me a while to realize, but now that I am aware of it, I feel the weight of this when I’m about to change course. So, I wasn’t quite ready to complete the final painting for the 2021 collection. But I’ll get a good night’s sleep tonight and I will start it tomorrow.

Weeds

Watch this oil painting come to life in under a minute (time lapse)

It’s been very hot here in the deep South, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. After all, it’s Georgia in August. During the hottest days of summer we fall behind on the yard work because it’s too miserable to push ourselves to care. The weeds enjoy running wild and free until the days get cooler and we get back on track.

One of the weeds we get plenty of is clover, which reminds me of the wild shamrocks in Ireland- a beautiful place where I lived for a short while. So I really don’t mind seeing clover and I often leave it where it’s growing. It even has a season when dainty yellow flowers are in bloom, which inspired me to paint the clover painting in the video I shared today.

Sometimes people see a weed, when others see a pretty flower and strong hardy greenery. Spiritually, what may offend some, may inspire others. A person or idea that “will never go away, and just keeps growing no matter how hard one tries to cut it down and get rid of it”, may be a truth that is resilient and will survive no matter how many forces want to kill it.

How do we know which flowers are pretty and should be allowed to stay, and which are weeds and shouldn’t be allowed to grow? Well, the answer lies in boundaries. May we always have the freedom to nurture our own gardens, growing what we wish, and keeping what we believe in. If others see weeds, may they never trespass into their neighbor’s garden to kill them. For every gardener deserves the freedom to decide for oneself what is worthy.

Another Sunday

Watch this Celtic cross painting from start to finish in 2 minutes (time lapse)

This Celtic cross oil painting was inspired by a monument presented as a gift from Ireland to Savannah, Georgia; commemorating the large Irish immigration to the United States that settled in this area. As we near the end of another Sunday, I hope that you take time for rest and reflection. May the week ahead be peaceful.