Puddle Jumping – and how it spoke to me

melaniestokesart.com
9×12 Oil
melaniestokesart.com
9×12 Oil

Puddles and Children – they seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly.  These brothers are always up for adventure!  Jumping in this icy, cold water in December was pure delight to them.

Do you enjoy jumping into “icy cold water,” new adventures, or beginning any change?  Here is where I’m going with this… For years I’ve been primarily a Landscape Painter. I enjoy being outside and I enjoy painting about the beauty of this natural world.  I worship the Creator as I paint landscapes.   I have shied away from painting people.  (To be honest, I felt totally inadequate about it so I avoided it.)  So, today as I painted these grandsons, hopping with total abandonment, into these puddles, I realized “I think I have overcome my fear of painting people by jumping right in!”

I do need to give Gina Brown some credit here.  She taught a figure painting class in October that rocked my world!  I don’t have to paint the faces.  I am capturing light and shadow on the figures.  I am focusing on the personality of the children and the activity.  And I love it!

So, with New Year’s Resolutions in mind, and a leading that I can attribute to God’s voice, I am jumping into painting people.  Not portraits, but I strive to paint the activity of people, as life on this earth.  I am reminded today, my worship of God happens not just as I marvel at the landscapes He created, but also, as I ponder and enjoy relationships of people – relationships with each other, and with Him.