Brrrr-eavement

my watercolor, "One Wintry Night", 2008

    
       It is cold.  It is STILL cold, I mean.  What I mean to say it, it's cold!!!  Usually I totally enjoy all the seasons, but this year I am already tired of the cold.  We keep our thermostat set at 60 degrees (or should I say 60 de-grieves?), and try to make up the difference with the wood stove.  It is a full time job keeping wood cut, gathered, stacked, and burning.  And still I am cold.  And, it's only January... we still have February (my Hubby calls it "Febr-ugly")  and March to go...  I am tired of being cold.  I am tired of using the heating pad to warm my frozen feet, only to succumb to frozen fingers.
  

      It has frozen my creativity as well.  Who can do watercolors when their fingers are numb? This is a numbing coldness that spreads from the fingers to the soul.  And, who can do watercolors when their soul feels numb?  There is a place in my self that is cold as ice.  Please, Lord, defrost me!  Place Your hand on my hand and in my heart and take away the iciness.  I want to feel warm again.
  

      As a dear friend quoted to me last night:  "This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep... Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength."  (Nehemiah 8: 9,10)
     Hmmm... Maybe, on this cold snowy day, I can keep this in mind, get out some paper, some paints, and be creative...  I can feel the warmth coming back.  Praise God.



SHALOM  Y'ALL  -  TWYLA

The Master Artist

Some  local scenery - obviously painted by The Master Artist!

   Set thy gaze toward heaven. Lo, thine eyes shall behold My glory.
     For I have brought thee through the testing time, and my heart rejoiceth over thee.  Thou seeth but a part of the picture, but I see the design in its completion.  Thou canst not know what is in My mind and what I am creating with the materials of thy life.
     Only be thou yielded in My hands.  Thou needest not to make thine own plans, for I am in control, and thou wouldst bring disaster by interference, even as a child who would wish to help a master artist, and with untrained use of the brush would ruin the canvas.
     So rests thy soul, this knowing, that I have been at work, and in ways thou hast least suspected; for the picture in thy thinking and the work with which I was engaged were entirely different.

desert winds - photo by Melody Germain (my daughter)

  I make no idle strokes. What I do is never haphazard.  I am  never merely mixing colors out of casual curiosity. My every move is one of vital creativity, and every stroke is part of the whole.
     Never be dismayed by apparent incongruity.  Never be alarmed by a sudden dash of color seemingly out of context.  Say only to thy questioning heart, 'It is the Infinite wielding His brush; surely He doeth all things well.' "
        
           - from "Come Away My Beloved", by  Frances J. Roberts  (one of my favorite books)

the Dead Sea

Shalom Y'all - Twyla

Let it Snow... or not!

Farm scene as remembered from my childhood

     Oh, the weather outside is frightful..... but the fire is so delightful... Yep, it is.  A cold drizzly rain up here in the mountains.  The sort that makes your bones ache.  Nevertheless, we are going "down the mountain" this afternoon.  Leaving home around noon so as to arrive at our friends' house at two-ish.  It's probably going to turn to snow some time tomorrow... at least that's what "they" say... Suits me.  We should be home long before then, Lord willing.  Meanwhile, keeping the wood stove  going is a fulltime job. Ahhh, but well worth it!


One Wintry Night

       We haven't yet had a pretty snow this year.  I do love looking at everything with that beautiful blanket of clean snow on it.  Have you ever noticed that snow really isn't white?  When I began seriously painting,  I experimented with painting a zebra - with no black and no white.  It came out pretty cool.  So, having done that experiment,  I painted snow scenes that way.  Hope you will enjoy.  Will try to post some of my larger snow scenes some time soon.
          Shalom Y'all - Twyla

Dare To Be Different

               This is one of my most-favorite-ever watercolors.  I painted it over three years ago, and it remains a favorite.  I painted this when I saw a bunch of tulips in the flower bed right by my doorway.  All of them were the same, except one.   I felt akin to the different tulip;  I have never quite "fit in", sometimes to my chagrin and sometimes to my relief...
                ...to my chagrin, back in my highschool days when everybody wants to fit in; I was the artistic type, the one who dressed differently, the all-A student who did NOT participate in student council, because it was too clique-ish...
               ...and, to my relief, throughout my Christian walk I don't WANT to fit in!  The LORD tells His people to be set apart.  And, I am set apart.  I am the orange tulip. All praise be to God.
               Dare to be different!
                                                                                       Shalom Y'all!     Twyla