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 Junior 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 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. Just 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.
Residing between light and dark
Today I'd like to share with you a painting I call Residing Between Light and Dark. It is large so you don't have to see me all the time, lucky you.
I painted this winter scene with snow in 2014 and I loved the yellows, gold, and blues of the original. Snow is difficult to paint because it isn't always white.
This picture had a lot of shadows. I love the contrast between light and dark and the in-between area.
A dove of light
When I painted this, I saw the light was strong in this section, coming through the trees in a way that looked like a dove. I couldn't decide if I should make the dove light more obvious in my rendition or let it be and allow people to use their imagination.
My teacher said yes, make it appear more like a dove so with a few pencil strokes, light resembled wings.
It speaks about life
But what this painting speaks to me of, is life.
Where do you live your life? Do you live in the bright sunshiny part, or do you live in the dark gray area of life? It's not easy to stay in either of the two sections.
If you live in the gray area your life will soon end because no one can survive in darkness for a longer time.
At the same time, constantly living in the bright lovely part of life is not natural or something we can accomplish here on earth. We can accomplish it when we arrive in heaven but until then eternal sunshine is not possible or realistic.
Somewhere in the middle
Often we are somewhere in the middle. There are light days and dark days. That's a natural situation for all humanity and nothing to be ashamed of or to see as a failure.
We learn from the difficult situations in life and we grow and gain stability in the positive.
When you look at the trees in the middle you notice the absence of leaves on the branches. The trees on the right in the dark area, however almost seem to bear leaves.
It was difficult to detect what kind of trees were in the original.
Clinging to darkness
Some trees like oak and beach don't lose their leaves in the fall or winter. The leaves stay on until the new leaves push the old leaves out (My idea of the science but I could be very wrong.)
I think old dead leaves are clinging to the darkness, just as we can find ourselves doing at times.
Mulch for fertile ground
But in the middle, the leaves have fallen off, they let go and are hiding under the snow soon to turn into mulch. Mulch fertilizes the earth and helps things grow. If we build our home somewhere in the middle we can live in a balance between light and darkness.
God can turn the bad things into mulch that will help us grow and allow the sun and positive things to shine and give new life to the old.
A clear view of life
All our experiences during life will still be a part of us in heaven but we will see them through pure glass, not through an old brassy mirror.
We will understand with a clear view how our life situations, both positive and negative were used by God to make us who He wants us to be.
My prayer
My prayer for us all is that during this winter season, we will be able to use the darkness surrounding us whether physically through nature or in our personal situations to regain strength to start the mulching process so when spring comes and new life is expected we will be prepared for life to grow in us.
Praise the Lord!
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.
If you want to keep up-to-date on my work, feel free to sign up for my email newsletter by clicking the button below.
Comments