Ministering Angels

What a few enhancements can do for an image.

 I'm so happy with the editing techniques I'm learning from Kim Klassen.  This time I combined a "recipe" from Beyond Layers with inspiration from Beyond Beyond and Texture Tuesday.

Enhancements include the filters high pass and gaussian blur as well as layer adjustments to levels, saturation, gradient and color fills. This was topped by Kim's texture layer Mary from the Downton Collection.

Cropped only, no enhancements.

 Even though this picture has a cluttered background and a dark exposure, I had hope for it because of the highlights on the angel's head, praying hands and tops of the wings.
Using the gaussian blur helped push the background back and when I erased the angel from the blur layer exposing the focused layer, I gave it the emphasis I desired. (I'm still working in PSE 4, an old version of PS Elements that doesn't have the masking capabilities that new versions have which is why I literally erased the blurred angel.)

There were ten layers when I completed this image.

A few years ago Mom gave me this garden angel to thank me for helping when she had health issues.  I placed it by roses in my garden. One of my sisters and I had a great day selecting the roses. A pretty yellow variety was to remember my Grandma by, but the rabbits and Japanese beetles have taken their toll on it.  I think last summer's drought finished it off.  Obviously, this angel doesn't have mystical powers to ward off enemies in my garden, including the dandelions popping up around it... But it reminds me of Mom and how when we give of our self to others, we may seem like an angel to them.  The Bible tells us that God sends angels as ministering spirits to help us in time of need.

Earlier today I finished a novel on my Kindle called "Not A Sparrow Falls" by Linda Nichols which is a free download from Amazon at the time of this posting.  I wasn't sure I liked it when I was in the first couple of chapters, but I decided to keep going.  Soon I was hooked.  There are references in the book that go with this image very well.  If you have a Kindle, you should check it out.

Whisper Truth to Myself

It seems ironic to me that I'm posting this image today.  It's the first day of Spring; a time to celebrate the bursting forth of the renewal of green.  I took a tour of my flower gardens today.  I tossed most of the dead sunflowers off to the side.  We are having a record setting heat blast in Iowa, and there is a premature surge of new life in the garden.  Plants that don't normally produce new growth or buds until later in May are displaying infant leaves.

I am torn.  I know from life experience that this just ain't right.  There could be snowstorms in the next few weeks.  More likely, killing frost and freezing temperatures will come. I haven't been liberated from these thoughts to celebrate the early spring to its fullness.

Honestly, I do have fear.  Fear that fruit crops will suffer.  Our crab apple tree stood naked all winter because last spring a hail storm destroyed its blooms when they should have been pollinated.  There was not one marble sized crab apple on that tree. I missed the kisses of cranberry red against the winter sky.  I missed the flocks of robins or cedar waxwings stripping them away in late winter.

So now I must pray, knowing the Lord IS my helper.  He can and will help me through disappointments and loss.  He has been faithful in the past and he will be again.  Sara Groves sings it so well.

This image was shot in my winter garden.  I processed it with Photoshop Elements 4.0 to convert it to black and white and enhanced it with Kim Klassen's texture layer Flourish.  In Kim's eCourse, Beyond Layers, we were prompted by the word "whisper", which is what inspired me to choose this image from my archives.

Kim will be offering another round of Beyond Layers and I highly recommend this course.  There is technical information as well as artistic insight and exploration.

Happy Heart Monarch

Kim Klassen "Happy Heart" texture applied to my image

I was away from my laptop for more than a week attending to a family matter.  I told my Hubby that right after missing him, I missed editing images!  So before my busy day away from home gets started, I checked out the latest Texture Tuesday assignment at the Kim Klassen Cafe.

Every fall, butterflies visit my back yard garden and feast on the nectar of the Autumn Joy Sedum plants.  The butterflies are usually so preoccupied with their feeding that I can get fairly close to them.

I used minimal editing on this shot.  After croppping, I balanced the levels and desaturated the green to visually push the foilage back.  Two layers of the Kim Klassen's texture "Happy Heart" were added and the multiply blending mode was applied.  I erased the texture over the butterfly from one layer.  (For just a short while, I'm still using PSE 4.0, but will be upgrading very soon when my Wacom Intuos 4 tablet arrives. Then I'll easily mask out areas.)

This editing was a simple fix to help pop the butterfly from the busy surroundings.  I see the white spots like jewels set around the most beautiful stained glass.  Our Creator God is a magnificent artist!

"When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,

  the moon and the stars, which You have set in place,

  what is man that You are mindful of him,

  and the son of man that you care for him?"

GPP Crusade No. 60: I Love...

It's been a few months since I participated in a GPP Street Team Crusade.  Besides following Michelle Ward's prompts for the challenge, there is the fun of reading the blogs of the other participants.   I've made some wonderful friends through the comments and emails that have been shared through this group.  But, sometimes life has other priorities and I needed to step back... and I read today that there will be only one more crusade after this.  I'm SO glad that I'm jumping back in right now because it gives me an opportunity to say it loud from here:
 I love you Michelle Ward!

Mixed media with digital text.

I created a two-sided page on Strathmore Mixed Media Paper.  This paper is great!  It's smooth surface made writing I Corinthians 13 [the Love Chapter] with a Sharpie pen a pleasure.  Next I used a favorite technique gleaned from an earlier crusade - gesso resist.  Using a heart stencil, I applied tinted gesso with a sponge roller.
After the gesso dried, I used a limited color palette of transparent raw sienna, quinacridone magenta and phthalo blue, and transparent mixing white (zinc white).  Since the paint was thick (Liquitex from tubes), I thinned the paint with matte medium and water.  I wanted rich pigments and yet retain tooth to the paper for subsequent layers.  Using the same paints, flowers and hearts were stencilled on the page.  Circles were made using bottle caps for stamps.


Page without the digital journaling.

 Now I let this set for a few days before deciding what to do next.  Using a white Sharpie poster paint marker and Inktense pencils in similar colors to the paint, I brought out some of the shapes and added a bit of doodling.  Love was written with the Sharpie marker and shaded with the Inktense pencils.  A bit of additional doodling was added with a Sharpie pen.  I can go back to this page and add more doodling, but I decided to stop now and scan it so I could add a digital message.  When I read today that Michelle is retiring the crusade after next month, I knew what I had to say.

Here's a wink to you, Michelle!

As I stated earlier, I painted both sides of the paper.  One edge is deckled (paper torn against a deckling ruler).  I folded the page not quite in half to leave space for adding a binding later with my Zutter Bind-It-All.  My Martha Steward scoring board and a ruler helped me get a clean fold on this heavy paper.
This page used the same paints except for the transparent raw sienna.  There was no journaling on the page either.
Last night I found a face (Sharon Tomlinson, thank you) and brought it out subtly with Inktense pencils.
Inktense go on like a regular colored pencil, but when you wet the color, it intensifies and you can move it with a paint brush.  Once it dries, it is set.  I have a small set of 12, but would love more some day.
Please look into the Green Pepper Press Street Team Crusades.  They are still available for viewing and learning and doing!  Michelle has been a generous teacher and a great cheer leader.

A Barn and More Treasure from James




This barn always captures my attention from afar.

  Do you ever take the slower route to your destination?  You may be rewarded in seeing treasures you would have missed while flying down the interstate highway.

A few years ago, I noticed this barn in the distance while taking one of our favorite back roads.  I am drawn to that barn like a moth to a flame.  My husband often offered to stop so I could photograph it, but I would wave him on with excuses about the terrible, harsh mid-day lighting.  It was true.  I knew an image would wash out and there would be little contrast.

But one day I was traveling on my own and turned down the gravel road so I could get closer to the barn.  And since I'd bothered to do that, I might as well take a few pictures to remember the day.

Fast forward to the present.  I'm looking at my photo images with new eyes since learning different editing techniques, especially from Kim Klassen.

Editing this image has been a challenge for me. To give it a painterly feeling, I made several adjustments including blending modes, levels, hue, saturation, high pass filter, and Kim's texture layers Sienna and History. My emotional tie to the subject made me more tentative than usual, but I felt something was missing.  Last night I hopped over to Texture Tuesday, where Kim challenged us to use her texture "Felicity" on an image.  I thought, "Why not try Felicity on this barn?"  It was just the extra something I needed to pull my layers together.

I debated whether or not to add text, but the road was crying out to me for something.  After a bit of searching, I decided to use a verse that has become very familiar to me this month since it is in the Book of James in the Bible. (James 3: 18)  If you are new to this blog, I'm in a Bible Study on James and have been memorizing the book.  By the grace of God, I've completed four chapters and have started the last one.

Off to dig up more image treasures and to store more True Treasure in my heart...

Makarios - Blessed - Happy

The Greek word 'makarios' is often translated as blessed or happy.

What a joy it has been to give my images new life using the editing skills I'm learning and by applying Kim Klassen's texture layers.  In Beyond Layers, Kim recently prompted us to consider choosing happiness.

In Bible study, I learned that the Greek word 'makarios', usually translated as 'blessed' in the New Testament, can also properly be translated as 'happy'.  Makarios is used several time in the familiar passage known as the Sermon on the Mount.  Ever since learning that truth, these words have been inseparable in my mind.

This excerpt is from the Holman Bible Dictionary:
"In the New Testament, the word “bless” often translates makarios, meaning “blessed, fortunate, happy.” The special characteristic of New Testament uses of “bless” and related words is close relationship to the religious joy people experience from being certain of salvation and thus of membership in the kingdom of God."

The Carefree Beauty Rose grows on a shrub that my husband and I selected for our anniversary many years ago.  It graces our garden with blooms from early summer through fall as long as the deer and rabbits leave it alone!

I applied screen adjustment to the image which helped unify the lighting since the background was very dark compared to the bloom in full sun. Kim's texture layer, Felicity, added extra character that I desired. This layer was adjusted with hard light to help bring out the grunge along the edge and yet maintain the lightness of the bloom.  If you like this look, you really must check out Kim's site!

Faith and Works: Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Is my faith like this rusty old wagon?

I've been studying, memorizing and meditating on the second chapter of James. This is concentrated food for the mind, the heart and the soul.  The book of James contains the kind of teaching that inspired the late J. Vernon McGee to proclaim his famous phrase, "where the rubber meets the road".

You can have a car [faith], but if it just sits in the driveway, what good is it?
When the rubber meets the road, you're going places and doing things you can't just sitting in the driveway.

I was raised on a farm that is still in my family.  I enjoy walking down the lane past the grove, looking out across the pasture where cattle are grazing and the fields of corn and soy beans.  Along the way is a resting place for some of my brother's equipment.  Some have been retired from service.
As they settle into the landscape, their aging process helps camoflauge them with coatings of rust and lichens and fading, peeling paint.  Their patina is beautiful to me.

For today's Texture Tuesday, I chose this image of a retired grain wagon.  I applied Kim Klassen's texture layers "Confidence" and "Storm", along with other adjustments using Photoshop Elements.

During the editing process, I was reminded of the last verse in James 2.  One thought that came to mind is that if faith is the wagon, what good is it when it just sits wasting away.  But if it is hitched to the tractor, the wagon can be put to use to haul grain from the field to market.  The wagon [faith] is active along with the tractor [works]. (see James 2:22)
...probably not the best analogy, but that's how I came up with the verse for the image.

In case you're wondering, I'm close to having the second chapter memorized.  I'm finding that I must keep reviewing chapter one while continuing on with chapter 2, because the details tend to slip away from my mind if I don't.

If you're wondering about Texture Tuesday, see Kim Klassen's blog for details.

Flowers of the Grass and Other Ponderings

"For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass;

its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. 

So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits." 

James 1: 11 ESV

Daunting words.  I'm studying the book of James with a group from my church using Beth Moore's latest study guide: "James - Mercy Triumphs."  This time Beth threw out a challenge to memorize the book of James.  What?!?!  It's not required, but I was drawn to the challenge.  My normal thinking is that I cannot possibly do that.  Previous attempts to memorize topical verses has not been a great success.  I haven't disciplined myself to keep reviewing the verses to keep them fresh.  Occasionally, by the grace of God, a verse will come to mind when I need it.  So how did I think I could memorize a whole book of the Bible, let alone a chapter?

With God all things are possible.  Seek, Ask, Find.

And by HIS grace, I have memorized chapter 1 and have my foot firmly planted into the beginning of chapter 2.

What happens to your mind when you are memorizing a complete passage is pure blessing.
It is joy.

Something else happens.  The Word is alive in all aspects of your life in a new way. Even art making.

I skimmed through my image files looking for something that I could enhance with Kim Klassen's Simplicity Texture.  (Be sure to follow the link to Kim's site where each week she shares a texture.)
I was attracted to a group of images I shot one late autumn that were inspired by silhouettes and textures at a local park, and I hoped to use the shots for painting references.
The "Dead Heads" gave me a great digital palette.  The sky was a vast blank of nothingness.  Most of the detail of the image was lost to shadow, though not a perfect silhouette, giving me lost and found edges.

As I made adjustments to the image, cropped it and applied the texture layers, I remembered the Word that has been scrolling through my mind and falling from my lips over and over...

"Like a flower of the grass, he will pass away..."  James 1: 10b ESV.

I am reminded to share my blessings.

Purple Cone Flowers Acrylic Painting

Untitled painting featuring cone flowers. Painting is 24 x 36 inches on stretched canvas. It was inspired by photos I took in my backyard garden. These are not the usual wild echinacea, but a cultivated variety that a friend shared with me. I love their glorious texture!

This is what I will be painting at the fundraiser, "Unforgettable Art: An Affair for Alzheimer's!" in Rockford, IL.
It's exciting to share my art and help a cause that is so important to my family. I am also very happy to be meeting Janet Nelson, a fellow blogger, who introduced me to this event. Watch out Rockford!

I will be thinking of my late dad and grandmother while I paint. There are others in my husband's and my life who are also suffering because of this disease. They will be in my heart as well. Then there are the caretakers... Mom and my brother were steadfast in caring for Dad before he had to live at a care facility.

I look forward to the day when no one will suffer any more. Today I read these words:

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
before the Lord, for he comes,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness,
and the peoples in his faithfulness.
Psalm 96: 11-13 ESV

Earlier this week I was inspire by the following quote by Mary Todd Beam:

"Our goal as artists may be to live with the fact of death. What we gain along the way is not necessarily an accumulation of beautiful paintings, but a greater awareness of what it means to be alive."

As I paint this Saturday, I will be very aware of the fragility of our lives, but my prayer is that I will express my hope and appreciation for the life given me by creating a beautiful painting.

GPP Crusade No. 32 - Knock Yourself Off

The above is my latest attempt at melding my scanned artwork with Photoshop Elements text and editing. I was inspired by the GPP Street Team's latest challenge. Read on for more info-

In an earlier GPP Crusade, I played with circles. Lots & lots of circles.

The following is acylic paint on rice paper. I like it very much, but it needs to be with something.

This is a page from my visual journal from January 2009. I used permanent marker and watercolors on watercolor paper. One of my goals is to improve my faces.

Last week I sketched this face. (Both were drawn from my imagination.) After roughing her in with graphite on watercolor paper, I inked her face with a Pitt Pen. Next I added color using Caran d'Ache Neocolor II (watersoluble crayons) which were applied using a water reservoir brush. This is such a neat procedure that I paint while sitting in my recliner in front of the TV.

I can see that I'm making progress with faces. But won't it be fun to keep working on them?

To challenge myself more, I decided to digitally layer the portrait with the circles page. I learned a few new tricks in PS Elements as I worked through the process. I'd like to revisit more of my simple pages to see what I can do with them. Now that Michelle has extended the deadline for this challenge, I may try to work on new ideas that have formed.

I chose the Scripture verse because it was part of a passage read at the funeral of a dear friend last week. I've been pondering it much since then. Our friend lived a long and full life. So many lives were touched in a wonderful way because of her. She had marked this passage in her Bible and she truly was a wise woman.

I'm blessed to have known her.

New Painting - Pride Before a Fall

A few weeks ago I was inspired to make this painting. The funny thing is that I was thinking of the word "Failure". I mistakenly thought failure was the challenge word for Illustration Friday. I quickly sketched my idea and thought about how I'd execute the painting. Later, when I was at my computer, I was reminded that the word for the week was "forgotten". I did do an interpretation of forgotten in my journal & shared that for IF. I started this painting that week and have just completed it.

When I was thinking about failure, I remembered Peter, the disciple of Jesus, who declared he would not fall away from Jesus. Jesus told him that Peter would deny him three times that night before the cock crowed. Jesus was taken away by soldiers and Peter did fall away, just as Jesus said he would. Peter wept bitterly.

I'd like to think that I wouldn't fail like Peter did, but I know better. It's so easy to make prideful promises or statements. But when things get tough, that's when I'm tested. I have known failure.

After Jesus was crucified, died and resurrected from the dead, he appeared to Peter and the other disciples. The wonderful thing is that even though Peter failed, he was forgiven and restored to fellowship with Jesus. I'm grateful that there is forgiveness and restoration for me, too. (Matthew 26 and John 21.)

This painting was done with acrylic on illustration board. I started by using gel medium to adhere used tea bags to the illo board. The tea bags were dried, opened and emptied of the tea. A few bits of tea remained on some of the papers. After this layer dried, I loosely sketched the rooster and started painting. I added verses from Matthew 26 taken from an old paperback Bible. The caption was done with acrylic paint. The finished work is 10" x 10". The image here is slightly cropped because of the size of my scanner bed. I framed it simply with a narrow black frame.

This painting is available for purchase. Contact me for details.

Illustration Friday - Forgotten

Unless you have purposely avoided the news this past week, you probably know the Midwest is experiencing historic flooding. Some thought the floods of 1993 were 500 year floods, meaning they would only occur to that severity every 500 years. In Iowa, some rivers are exceeding the 1993 levels.
Thankfully, the worst I have personally experienced is the inconvenience of relatively short detours to avoid flooded roads in Ames. And that was only 2 days.
We're just 40 minutes from the Des Moines River that is flooding over the Saylorville Reservoir Dam spillway. The news if full of stories of sandbagging, evacuations, road closings....
In Eastern Iowa, there is more flooding where water supplies are being threatened. Friends and family have already been affected by the storms.
All this gloomy news has been weighing me down. I found myself constantly checking the latest weather radar.
As if that wasn't bad enough, last night 4 Boy Scouts perished when a tornado struck their camp in Western Iowa. I wept after hearing the story of one of the boys - only 14 and already an Eagle Scout!
I realized that I needed to change my focus. I turned to God's Word, the Bible, for encouragement and perspective. Tonight I wrote most of the text of Psalm 77 in my journal and added the artwork. It's easy to get bogged down in the misery of life. But God has not forgotten us.

Faith Hope & Love 1 - Tulips

Yesterday I took an hour to finish this painting. Tonight I cut mats and framed it with help from Hubby. Now it will be ready to display at Friday's Art Walk in Ames (see my last post).

This was done with acrylic on watercolor paper. I started by writing most of "The Love Chapter" which is a popular name for the 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians in the Bible. Originally I planned to have some of the text show through layers of glazing, but it was lost under the many layers I built up.

The tulips were painted on ATC sized paper that I prepared with a layer of Golden Fiber Paste. I love the texture it added. The ATC's were adhered to the background with heavy gel medium.

I plan to do more paintings that are inspired by this Scripture. I studied and meditated on these words very seriously before I married my husband almost 27 years ago. I was very challenged by the message and realized it was not in my own power to live up to them. So my prayer was that God would work in me to help me love my husband the way this chapter describes. I haven't always lived up to the standard, but it is still my goal.

I recently started thinking about these words again. I've been journaling some of my thoughts and jotting down ideas for future paintings. But the execution of those ideas will have to wait until we get a lot more work done on our house.

Illustration Friday - Worry

This was a good week to think about the word worry. What came to mind was Jesus' lesson about worry that can be found in Matthew 6: 24 - 34.
I love these words: "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them." "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" You can read the entire passage that inspired my watercolor sketch by going to the link above.

I journaled about this verse and did several quick sketches of lilies with a bird. I'd like to follow this up with a more detailed painting. By the way, the text was added in photoshop after scanning my painting.

We have a lot on our plate, and it's easy to be overcome with worry. The reminder to not worry has been very timely. Here's another verse that reminds me not to worry, but instead turn to God in prayer. Philippians 4: 6-7.

Blessings to you, Dear Readers.