Tag Archives: hopeful

Peace in Sadness

See oil painting “Lion and the Lamb” come alive in 2 minutes (time lapse)

This art might feel different depending on what’s going on in the world and in your life when you view it. Today it feels (to me) like the title of this post, “peace in sadness”. I’m not sure how to put into words what I mean by this, but I’ll try. When too exhausted to maintain anger and anxiety, when too weary to be passionately hopeful, and too much time has passed for a trial to be resolved before harm is done, all that remains is a sad sort of peace that settles in when there’s nothing left to do but accept what is.

May we be protected like this lion protects the lamb. Resting inside a cave shelter while waters rush by, we wait out the storms of this world. God bless you and keep you, this day and always.

Painting a Story

See oil painting “Cardinal at the Cabin” come alive in 2 minutes (time lapse)

I uploaded this painting video to YouTube today and I struggled to come up with the words to put into the description. What started off as a simple project idea turned into a story of loss and healing. My grief journey began when I was a child, but when Mom died, it felt like I lost Dad all over again because she was the one who kept his memory alive.

But it has been several years now since she passed, and now my journey has me on a path where I’m hopeful and focused on the new roads ahead. Every now and then, though, my spirit needs a retreat to the cabin in the woods. Here is what I wrote for the YouTube video description:

What does this painting mean to you? Art is a language and it speaks to you however you want. This is what it means to me: When I painted this, the project goal was to paint from my imagination (no reference or plan) and paint however the emotions and inspiration leads. My thoughts were of a cabin in the woods, a peaceful and restful space, a spiritual escape from the stresses, chaos, and darkness of this world. But as I painted, I found myself lost in the scene with additions that changed the story. The empty rocking chair and the cardinal in the tree- the chair reminded me of Mom. Her chair is empty and her tea is abandoned, as she left it. The cardinal is Dad’s spirit, who died almost 25 years before her, when he was 37 years old. This space holds the spirits of loved ones who’ve left this world, yet they live on where time and physical distance has no meaning. When the burdens of this world are too much, let our minds escape to this cabin in the woods, where peace is forever standing still, and we are forever loved. But let’s not linger there too long. We are blessed to be alive. We have so much left to do. I have hundreds more paintings to reach my 1k finished oil paintings goal. We all have a destiny, a purpose, and reason to be here.

Peace be with You

See oil painting “Dove in a Forest” come alive in less than 2 minutes (time lapse)

This is one of my earlier paintings. It remains a favorite for some of you. I’ve worked hard today and I’m tired- are you? This art expresses how I feel at the moment: subdued, yet expectant (hopeful), quietly confident (letting nature and time take its course, faithful), and peaceful.

My work on the show is wrapping up. It will be delivered on schedule. My goal is to launch it several days before Christmas to give you time to share it with your family and friends. Until the show is finished, I’ll be putting in long days. It will all be worth it and I hope you enjoy the show!

Another New Week

Watch this vase of flowers oil painting come to life in 1 minute (time lapse).

Did you have a restful Sunday? I hope that today you took time to reflect on the week ahead, and you’ve made productive, creative, and hopeful plans. Even if your plan is something simple, like spending 15 minutes outside each day, may you do what your heart tells you to do. God bless you and your family.

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New Painting – “Alabama Landscape”

September 17, 2022

Oil painting by artist Natalie Buske Thomas “Alabama Landscape”. Watch Natalie paint this art in less than 2 minutes (time lapse video). New painting for September 2022.

New Painting Finished!

September 8, 2022

If you’ve been following the progress of my new oil painting “Walking in Rain Puddle”, you’ll be happy to know that it is now finished

Back to Work! Session 3

September 7, 2022

Well, it’s time to get back to work on the new painting in progress. Normally I wait until the painting is finished before sharing, but

Today’s Painting

September 2, 2022

LOL! It looks like my daughter (girl in the painting) is afraid of my fan brush in this still photo I lifted from the video!

New Painting in Progress

August 30, 2022

I don’t often show my paintings until they are done, but I thought you’d like to know what I’m working on since there’s been a

New month, new direction!

August 1, 2022

Did you click on the image above? I’ve painted enough art now to re-design this website and sort by categories! This will be more fun

Hymn for Cardinal Painting

July 16, 2022

As promised, I’ve put together a singing video with the lyrics for the instrumental hymn that was in yesterday’s painting video. Maybe you already know

Go Light your World

July 12, 2022

This is the song that is featured in my oil painting “Candle and Bible” video. The music in the time lapse video is an instrumental

New Painting

July 8, 2022

See this oil painting come alive in about 1 minute (time lapse video). Note: if you read my blog via e-mail, my videos probably won’t

Hymn for Lighthouse Painting

July 6, 2022

The painting video I shared yesterday included a piano instrumental version of “In Christ Alone”. My daughter (standing behind my chair) was kind enough to

Happy 4th of July!

July 4, 2022

See this oil painting “Americana” come alive in 2 minutes (time lapse video), or view the longer version in the 4th of July show. This

New Painting – “Lighthouse”

July 3, 2022

The song in the video is a piano instrumental version of the hymn “In Christ Alone”. “In Christ Alone” In Christ alone my hope is

New Painting!

June 22, 2022

See this osprey come to life in 2 minutes (time lapse video). My new art area is now fully set up and I should be

Happy Father’s Day!

June 19, 2022

I’m finally working on a new painting. I’ll share it on Wednesday. My daily blog has fallen behind since our sudden, unexpected move. I’m still

New Painting, Finally!

June 3, 2022

I’m finally back to work after our big sudden, unexpected move. The move took wild turns and we ended up buying a house at least

Want to go to Church?

May 22, 2022

If you watched the above video (a clip from this year’s Easter Show), you saw how emotional I was while singing the cover of “I

New Art Journey

May 20, 2022

I’ve lost track of how many oil paintings I’ve done, but “over 200” is possibly right. My lifetime goal is over 1,000 finished oil paintings,

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?

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Quiet Presence

Watch me paint “Blue Heron” in under 1 minute (time lapse)

He’s back! If you’ve been following me for a while, you might remember this story:

“Astrikingly beautiful blue heron appeared at the lagoon one day. I quickly took its picture to paint later. This is a different style from how I usually paint. It looks like a watercolor because I was trying to get away with using cheap paints that turned out to be watery and hard to work with. This was a happy accident, because the watercolor-like effect captured the mood.

He has only made one more appearance that I know of, but I hope he will return next spring. On the day he arrived, he just happened to be standing at the water’s edge when the light reflected the colors of the trees in a streaky wave of color. He was all alone, with no other birds or creatures in sight, which only added to his mysterious presence.”                                                                    – from book “50 Oil Paintings Inspired by Savannah, Georgia” by artist Natalie Buske Thomas

He has since come back a few times. He has a quiet presence, but somehow we become aware of him. His energy is so peaceful. It inspires a hopeful feeling, as if good things are soon to come.

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