Rising Sun

The fourth Sunday of Lent tells the story of Jesus' healing of the man who was blind from birth. The message is seeking light. Paul also deals with living in the light. We all want to be enlightened and as new insights come, our life is enhanced. Those moments of "Aha!" bring important ideas to us to help us lead the fullest life possible.

I chose this painting because of the light from the sun. I painted it after going to the beach at dawn. The lack of light before sunrise made everything look gray. Then--the sun came up and color shown!

Thomas Merton wrote: "My being is given me not simply as an arbitrary and inscrutable, but as a source of joy, growth, life creativity, and fulfillment. But the decision to take existence only as an affliction is left fully to me. Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Doubleday, New York, 1989, p.221

River Daze

The readings for the third Sunday of Lent focus on the "Living Water" offered by Jesus to the woman from Samaria. Living water is a term used to designate the vitality of water in a symbolic sense.

The symbolism is that of cleansing, purification, life sustaining, thirst quenching, washing, and more. The image on the left is whimsical and yet symbolic in its own way because the river is depicted with unusual waves and creatures. One can never know what living water will bring to our lives.

Sunspot

This painting, "Sunspot" was chosen to illustrate the dramatic intervention in our world by our God. The reading for the second Sunday of Lent describes the appearance of Moses and Elijah with Jesus: "And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun..." (Mt 17:2)

We can appreciate the importance of such intervention although we are not likely to experience it in the same way.

After Eden

"After Eden" depicts a fragmented image of what was initially a simple scene of a tree with fruit with grass, sky, and the glimmer of sunshine. In the reading for the first Sunday of Lent, Eve yields to temptation to eat of the tree in the garden that was forbidden to her. This idea of yielding to temptation is behind the meaning of this painting. The original bucolic scene is fragmented into barely discernible shapes to represent our lives when we yield to temptation and fragment our lives.

Experimental Art

"Sun Spot" is a watercolor 8" x 8" monotype that demonstrates line and rhythm.

"Untitled #1" will eventually have a title but for now it was an exercise in spontaneous lines that created shapes to paint.

"Line Abstract" was an exercise to emphasize line and composition. First I developed a composition, then painted the shapes and then outlined the shapes. It is done in acrylic.

These paintings are examples of work that I am doing following the guidance of Rolina van Vliet. Her instructional books teach concepts followed by directives to make a painting based on the concept. I have her two books: Painting Abstracts and The Art of Abstract Painting.