Tag Archives: music

EASTER SHOW LAUNCHED!

Easter Show 2022

HERE IT IS! Launching my new Easter Painting Show now, to give you time to share this special video with your family, friends, and social media. If you feel this show has value, please consider making a donation toward my future work. Every little bit helps, as I am self funded. Thank you, and I hope that you feel hopeful and encouraged after watching this.

Painting Show: Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

St. Patrick’s Day fun! 20 minute variety show

If you missed my St. Patrick’s Day show last year, or would just like to see it again- here it is! Live painting (well, recorded obviously, but painting in real time instead of time lapse), silliness, singing, and surprises. HAPPY St. PATRICK’S DAY!

Let your Light Shine!

See this oil painting of a lighthouse come alive in 1 minute (time lapse)

How long will we be paralyzed by the dystopia of 2020+? During the past couple of years I’ve taken up gardening and sewing, but I let my musical instruments dust over. Today I spent time playing music. My fingers are sore, I’ll have to build up callouses. I’m going to add music to my weekly schedule. If not now, then when?

Let your light shine! Time is being stolen from us, and if we let it happen, we’ve surrendered. What have we always wanted to do? Our lists may look different, but our goals are probably similar. We want to do things that bring us joy. The pursuit of happiness may need to be worked hard for and it may be hard to make the time, but if we put in a few minutes every week and never give up, we will do the things we’ve always wanted to do.

Time Shifts

Watch oil painting “Time” come alive in 2 minutes, featuring an antique pocket watch and roses

This oil painting video needed a change of music when I uploaded it to YouTube today due to a copyright claim (some royalty free music triggers a claim if uploading on some platforms). The new music changes how this painting feels. It seems to suit the way that many of us are feeling. This piece has a lot of dynamics and unexpected key changes, changing chaotic tempos, piercing alarming notes, yet there’s a hint of wistfulness, almost hope even. That sounds about right for how 2022 is going so far!

Compare it to the original music in the video below, which has a vastly different feeling. This bold piece has a tone of mystery, intrigue, reflection, and suspense. By the end, the music shifts to be somber and longing for the past.

These are interesting and challenging times. Why were we born for this particular time? What can we contribute? God bless and keep you, this day and always.

Easter Painting Show
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
New Painting – “Piano Portrait”
New Painting – “Celtic Harp”
New Painting – “Ballet Shoes”
New Painting – “Tap Shoes”
New Painting – “Mountain Dulcimer”
2023 Painting Collection Revealed
New Painting – “Chickadees in Holly”
CHRISTMAS PAINTING SHOW 2022! Enjoy!
New Show!
Last Month of Autumn
New Painting – “Thanksgiving Turkey & Pumpkins”
New Painting – “Alabama Landscape”
New Painting Finished!
Back to Work! Session 3
Today’s Painting
New Painting in Progress
New Painting – “Lion in Storm”
New month, new direction!

Golden Path

See oil painting “Narrow Way” come to life in 2 minutes (time lapse)

I shared this one with you recently, but today I re-edited it for YouTube and it’s somewhat different. It’s another painting video that I needed to update with music that doesn’t trigger a copyright claim. This music is oddly similar to the original even though it was nearly random in its choosing and came from an entirely different source. But even a slight difference in music changes the mood of the painting, even if just a subtle shift this time.

I didn’t expect to be revisiting these videos, but the idea of the golden path and the spiritual choice between the wide and narrow way feels more relevant than ever before. I will just go with the flow. When it seems that something is popping up for a reason, even if I don’t know what that reason is, I’ll act on it, even though I’d shared this same painting with you only a short while ago. You can interpret this as you wish. Maybe it means something to you.

More about this painting: “A metaphorical, allegorical oil painting featuring two paths. One is wide, gold, and easy, but taking that path puts us on the side of the tree that bares poisonous fruit. The other path is narrow, uphill, and difficult, but that path gives us good fruit. Fruits of the spirit are these: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galations 5:22-23).”

A Stone’s Throw Away

Watch this Ireland Coast oil painting come alive in 2 minutes (time lapse)

Here’s another painting video that I needed to change the music I’d originally used, to avoid copyright claims. I like how the new music works, but I also like the Irish music I had at first, so I’m keeping it the original way here on this site.

It feels like a journey looking into the past, going through these older painting videos. This was inspired by when I was living in Ireland in 2016 after my husband lost his job and we wanted to start over in a very big way. I’ve been thinking about Ireland a lot lately. Looking back is bittersweet.

We’d given up nearly everything we had to start over in Ireland, but even though I landed my month-long solo art show and my son got a partial scholarship to University College Cork, alas we couldn’t get our “permission to remain” visa and I had to cancel my art show (it was scheduled past our temporary visa expiration date), and the kids each canceled their school enrollment. It was rather crushing, as there was a process to get accepted for both them and for me, and our work to earn the money to go, by selling most of our possessions, and, well… it just wasn’t meant to be.

So, back we went, and by that time my husband was homesick and then the rest of us felt it too. We were born and raised in America, and no matter how much my dad’s spirit was calling me to Ireland, he was gone and I was not allowed to be an Irish resident. I will never really fully stop being sad about this, but I accept my place in life and I bloom where I’m planted.

However, when we first returned to the States, we went somewhere that quickly made us miserable, and we did not bloom! We were again landlocked and cold, and nothing we did was successful. But we didn’t let our journey end in such a crushing failure.

Even though we felt crazy to try yet again, we made one last long trip to somewhere beyond the rainbow where the dolphins roam wild. And now… if I were to stand at the coast near where I currently live, and throw a stone that could magically fly in a North Eastern direction across the ocean shore to the other side, it would land at the Celtic Sea Coast. I think of this whenever I stare across the ocean, imagining that it runs into the sea, and it reaches Ireland. I am just an ocean away. And this is where I belong. I will make a good life for myself here.

As I’ve been sitting here talking to you, the sun has come out. While it’s been cold here in Southern Georgia this January, today it is beautiful. It is currently 71 degrees F, with a high of 72. I’ll “see” you again tomorrow. I’m going outside!

Slow Change

See this oil painting of a lion called “Lion of Judah” come to life in 2 minutes (time lapse)

This lion painting has had several changes of music. This is the latest version for YouTube. The emotional vibe is entirely different, depending on what soundtrack is used. And even within the same piece the dynamics of the music change as well, bringing drama to the painting.

Have you experienced times in your life in which you expected or wanted a change, an outcome, a shift in status, or successful progress toward something you’d been hoping for… only to find that change seems non-existent or very, very slow? Years later, did you look back and realize that some of the things that you thought went no where, were actually training for the very thing you wanted to happen?

It turns out that when I was blogging away, without my awareness of it, I was coming up with show concepts for my new vlog series (that I didn’t even know I was doing until a few weeks ago). And I can only do this series if I have a large collection of work. So it’s a good thing then that I finished painting after painting, after painting. Dozens. Fifty. A hundred. Now hundreds, I think. I have lost count. 200?

My life is changing, but I hardly notice it. It’s not overnight. It’s in every paint stroke. It’s in every keystroke. It’s in every day that I never give up. Opportunities come to me, and I’m astonished that I’m uniquely prepared! It turns out that when I thought “nothing” was happening, a slow change was building.

That’s YOU. If you want something, work toward it. If you work toward your dreams one day at a time, a slow change will take place. When we put ourselves in motion, it may take a long time to get where we’re going, but one day we’ll look back from on top of the hill and say, wow, it was a long climb, but we’re finally able to stand at the top and look down at everything it took to get here. And then… it will be time to climb a mountain!

Peaceful Change

See oil painting “Candle and Bible” come alive in under 2 minutes (time lapse)

A personal challenge is waiting for you at the end of this blog post, so I hope you make it to the end.

More of my ongoing project to upload my painting videos to YouTube- the saga continues. This is another video with a copyright claim so I changed the music to something else that allows free use. It has created a peaceful change from the original version.

The music in the original means something special to me, as it is a song I knew from my growing up years. “There is a candle in every soul, some brightly burning, some dark and cold… Carry your candle, run to the darkness. Seek out the hopeless, confused and torn… Take your candle, and go light your world”, sung by Kathy Troccoli. We’d sing this song at events and use a flashlight in the darkness.

Many years later, I saw this song performed live by Chris Rice during a benefit concert for a very tragic situation in which I knew the family. At least I think he sang that one. Now I’m not sure if that particular song inclusion is a true memory, or if my recollection of hearing this song as a recording has merged with the songs I heard live at the concert. It was a long time ago.

Anyway, the song is meaningful to me and I thought of it instantly for my candle painting, but the music is of course not the original song by either of the artists I mentioned. It’s a rather plinky instrumental version (something I found online that I thought was free use, but apparently triggers a copyright claim on my video if uploading it to YouTube). So, I deleted it and replaced it with the music in the revised version at the top of this blog.

What I noticed is a peaceful change. And here comes the metaphor:

Sometimes in life we make a decision that seems right at the time. It may be based on our personal perspective, past experiences, and emotions about these memories. Then, a day comes and we are forced to listen to the music we’ve chosen as the soundtrack of our lives. And maybe the song no longer fits. It’s a poor imitation of an original, so it’s already removed from the source. And now it’s been so long (not necessarily in time, but in spiritual growth “years” which can be faster or slower than physical time), that we don’t even feel as strong of a connection to the original either.

Now it sounds noisy. We don’t want to listen to it anymore. It no longer fits.

The new music for this candle video is mellow. It is a peaceful change from the person I was when I chose the first song. I have progressed from someone desperate to make a statement, needy for approval, anxious about avoiding hateful feedback, and frightened by death threats, targeting, and other crimes committed against me, to who I am at this moment. I stand unafraid. I have held my ground against terror group “activists”, who knew my name, address, and children’s faces. I survived being “cancelled”. I have weathered unkind and stupid hateful remarks about my work or about me personally.

And? I’m still working on my lifetime goal of 1k finished paintings. What are my enemies doing? I have no idea. They have faded away. Always a new a’hat is ready to take their place, but they don’t have the power they used to have over me.

I do not need to stress out about every detail of my work and how it might be received poorly by others. I don’t need to try so hard to please those who love my work either. I also don’t need to worry that my expression of my faith isn’t good enough or Christian enough for those who choose me only for those reasons. I am doing the best I can with who I am. And that’s a peaceful change.

I am learning a lot about how I want to go forward with my work and my life, through this project that forces me to re-visit my older painting videos. It’s like a time capsule or a diary. The scrapbook of the past few years is bringing an awareness of how different I am today from who I was before. I strongly encourage you to do something similar.

I was also sorting through our family photos and framed several of them. That journey was just as healing, if not more so. Please do that, it is well worth the time. Not only will you have a fresh round of pictures to enjoy, but you’ll find closure that you didn’t even know you needed. It’s easier to know where we’re going when we have a firmer understanding of where we’ve been.

God bless you and keep you, this day and always.

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Inspired Vlog

See my oil painting “Sparrows” come alive in 2 minutes (time lapse) inspired by Matthew 10:29-31

First, about the re-edited Sparrows video: You may notice this version has new music dropped in. This is part of my ongoing effort to use music that has no copyright claim. I plan to create some of my own music too, but it’s hard to fit everything in. So, for now I am grateful to the talented musicians who have donated their music for free use!

Second, I want to talk to you about my new show. I’m starting an “Inspired by Natalie” vlog that will run on YouTube and here on this blog (and possibly other places, especially if people download my series to other platforms).

Today I wrote lyrics for my theme song. Yes, there will be theme song, LOL! And I have my show outfit. It was delivered this week and it’s everything I hoped it would be! 🙂 No spoilers. Well, maybe a few, but not today.

Do whatever you want to do, let no one tell you that you can’t. While others may mock you, they do nothing, while YOU live your best life! Be unstoppable!

New Year’s Resolutions

Watch this oil painting “Serenity Piano” come to life in just over 1 minute (time lapse)

Do you have any New Year’s resolutions? I thought I didn’t have any, except for my ongoing lifetime goal of 1k finished oil paintings, but today I came up with something I’d like to do. I want to do more of my own music for my oil painting videos. This one (above) was an experiment where I composed something for this piano video. The song has lyrics too, but I even though I’m the one who wrote them, I don’t remember what they were. I’d have to look those up. Anyway, the song is a bit rough and I’d planned to try this again with a more serious effort. I never did get back to it though.

I will commit myself to creating original music for… let’s say, at least three of my new paintings videos in 2022. I’ll let you know when the music is my own. I don’t mind if it’s not very good. The goal is to simply do it. I will improve over time (or will stop doing it, feeling as if composing/playing my own music for a short while was enough, we shall see!). Either way, I will have done it.

So much to do in 2022! Dream big, play hard! Remember, it’s a TIGER year!