Introducing Picture Stories
The journey of honing the gift of painting
A little introduction
Hi, I’m Susan and I’d like to share a little with you about my painting. I started painting in Jr. high and High school and tested several different methods.
For over 10 years, my sister-in-law, her daughter, and I attended a three-day summer painting class at my former workplace, Gullbrannagården.
Before then I had dabbled in oil painting after taking a class for a term in a study circle. After testing acrylics, I soon found that I enjoyed them better as they are water-soluble and easy to clean without strong chemicals. Also, you can make it look like oil with more paint and less water, or like watercolors by using more water.
It is a flexible medium that dries quickly, allowing you to work faster and layer colors without risking bleeding or mixing. If you need the paint to dry slower you can add a Gel Medium (matte or glossy). The gel lengthens the drying time of the paint as well as making the texture more liquid and thinning the paint.
Video Introduction
In the video below I talk freely about a particular attempt at painting with acrylic paint. I have written in more detail, the thoughts I speak of, in the text below.
A parenthesis: Although I am American I have done most of my painting in Sweden. I have learned the painting terms in Swedish and have difficulties finding the right words in English. The word ‘canvas’ escapes me often for example among other words. I leave my language mistakes just for the fun of it. It might give someone a laugh who can understand the difficulties of being bilingual.
Read about Fall Haze
Falling in love with a landscape
I painted this painting during the 3-day summer course in 2009. With 15 minutes left of the course, I looked around at the others' work. One of the ladies completed a larger version of this composition from an original photo in a calendar she'd brought with her. It was just gorgeous and I fell in love with it directly when I saw her finished product. I thought "Oh, I want that too!", I wanted that beautiful picture to remember and feel the same joy of depicting such a wonderful landscape as she experienced.
It didn't matter if my version turned out exactly right. Mostly I wanted to remember what the original looked like and have one for me. So, I started working as fast as I could.
Hiding Details in the Haze
I don't know if you can see but, in the background, there are houses hidden in the haze or fog. I made intricate details in the buildings and the trees, and then I had to paint over it in white to get the haze. This is from a fall photo of course and the difference of temperature of the ground and the air was making a haze. All the hard work and detail I put into the structures and trees disappeared behind the haze.
I didn't worry about that then, I just kept painting as quickly as I could. I'm not happy with the green grass or leaves or whatever this was that I tried to portray, they are too thick and awkward but I just left them because I was in a hurry. The wheat field looked like a wheat field. Getting the road level and not looking like it went straight up in the air was a challenge.
In the end, I got the essence of the painting that I enjoyed that the other student had done. It pleased me enough to hang it in my kitchen where I can see it daily.
Nuts and bolts of the picture
I made a frame from wood with a groove in it that the canvas fits in perfectly. I used a thin hard canvas instead of the normal canvas wrapped around a frame. There wasn't enough wood to use around the entire painting, so I used a rough twine to tie the pieces together. It hangs on a nail by the twine.
I'm rather satisfied with the results of both the frame and the painting, but sometimes we aren't satisfied with what we are doing.
We are rushed in life, and we know that there is a certain amount of time to do a certain number of things. We think, how am I going to get it all done?
One Bite at a Time
I read something in a novel called 'Love at Wild Harbor' by Grace Worthington on this subject that I liked. She is a friend of mine in Hope Writers. (If you don't already know, I love to read and write as well.) A character was stressed over having too many things to do. Another character tried to calm them and said;
"You know how you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." - Grace Worthington
That's the only thing we can do, take one bite at a time in life. Do what is before you right now. What is the next right thing, as my Hope Writers friend Emily P. Freeman says who wrote a book by that title? Ask what is the next right thing to do.
The Next Right Thing
I heard at a church conference with Jonas Eveborn, a Swedish pastor and evangelist, that the evil one doesn't always try to get us to do bad things. Often, he tries to get us to choose to do the second-best thing, that which isn't the best.
Often, we are not choosing between good and bad. We are choosing between good and better and best. If we choose something less than the best, we are choosing something less than what God wants for us just at that moment. Not that the other things aren't important or that we shouldn't be doing them.
But it's possible they are not supposed to be what we are doing right at that moment.
Do what God puts right in front of you
I feel that most of the time, the thing that we should be doing is what God places right in front of us. When I saw the painting the lady painted it was right in front of me and my heart said I want to have that.
This might not be very spiritual but could it be that God wanted me to remember that painting as well so that I can be uplifted when I'm sitting there eating my breakfast looking at it?
I think that's what He does. He puts something that warms our hearts and says this is the next right thing to do. I'm putting it in front of you right now. There are other important things to do, other important people and situations. But this thing is right in front of you right now and it's what I want you to do. It's the best thing right now.
There are so many "Must-Dos"
That is so hard to do. Because in the back of my mind, there are so many "must-dos" that I often put off the thing that would quench the thirst in my heart if I did it. Most often I put off things to do with other people, like taking time with my husband or friends, just being with them, and or just resting when I'm tired. That could be the thing that God says is best for me just then. But I don't do it because I have so many "must-dos" in the back of my head.
So I hope that you and I can work together to try to find the thing that is the most important to concentrate on just this right moment.
Sharing Picture Stories
I plan on sharing my paintings and a little story of each here on my website. I hope that somehow, I can inspire you to use the gifts God has given you to spread joy and the knowledge of our Lord, giving others a desire to seek a deeper personal relationship with Him.
Keep in touch
You can also follow me on Social Media. I am most active on Facebook and Instagram.
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