Birds of paradise...

"The Birds of the Bloedel"



While in Vancouver we went to the Bloedel Conservatory in Queen Elizabeth Park.  It was a good place to visit on an otherwise rainy day!!

But first we stopped for lunch at the VanDusen Gardens - rainy weather meant colourful umbrellas instead of wandering around the gardens!

There was a wonderful variety of intriguing and colourful plants at the conservatory but here I've included a parade of birds.  Fascinating in their calmness, fierce in their 'shrieks' [who knows what makes them do this!] and beautifully exquisite in their colours - yes, even the grey bird with the incredibly wrinkly feather pattern...

It is better to light a candle...

We are planning to escape for a few days to Vancouver, where green plants and flowers grow! And where the rain falls frequently - although I'm sure it will let up while we are there:)



Who would think the snow would still be so high, the icicles so long, and the ruts so deep mid-March...where is the bluster of March?

Will April showers be pushed into May?

Like many others I simply sigh and say, "We take what the weather brings."

I am thankful that we have such contrasts in weather because we really do get a huge range of nature's beauty.

I love how the setting sun reaching over our roof touches the top of the evergreens down the street.

This photo was taken February 24th, about 6pm, south of the city, and facing east. It was still amazingly light.  One could easily be confused, thinking it a sunset, but actually it is the reflection of the sun setting in the west as the moon rises in the east.

I read an ancient Celtic quote today that cheered me. While it may have originally applied to the hope the Celts longed for during their long experience of living under physical threat I think it also could apply to our long dreary winter....

"It is better to light a candle

Than to curse the darkness."

And so the strong force of culture and personality [Celtic grit, Norwegian ingenuity, & English fortitude - and, I suppose, Canadian 'resignation'] encourages me to once again open the door to the whiteness of yet another snowfall, start up a cold car, and drive over the ruts and ice to another day's work.... 

I know that while I complain now of the snow, come late summer I will complain of the heat.  And through it all I hope I will continue to learn to look for the beauty each day brings because in its coming it pushes back the darkness.

Show and Sale

Big Sky Artists Show & Sale

Grace Westminster Church Auditorium 
10th St @ Eastlake Ave, Saskatoon

April 19-21, 2013

Friday 7 – 9:30pm 
Saturday 10am – 5pm 
Sunday 11am – 4pm

Artists in Attendance

Hedie Borne

Jan Buttinger

Donna Delainey

Myrna King

Anneliesa Kristiansen

Lorna Lamothe

Bette Lemke

Jeanne Marcotte

Norma Rempel

Charlotte Sanford

Laurel Schenstead-Smith

Jean Smith 

Each year the artist group I belong to has a Show and Sale.  Each year it is "upon us" before we are ready it seems - like many events it happens before we are fully prepared.  Advent is happening while I am trying not to think of Christmas coming, Lent and Easter are fully upon us this year far to early! The snow is still 3 feet deep and winter just keeps hanging on - to think about things now which usually happen during "Spring" it somewhat difficult.

However, life simply does not wait for us to catch up. Often we find our souls running behind our actions - we have had little time to ponder the meaning of today before tomorrow happens.

Yesterday was a nice break.  After the morning Good Friday Service we had friends and family for lunch. A table of 10 can get quite noisy - but it was great.  What was even greater was to relax afterwards with some of the family in living room and then later in the evening to have two of our sons return to 'jam' - so nice to have creative music happening!

the "laughter of God"

The "laughter of God"

Recently, and over the course of 5 weeks, one evening a week, I attended a Contemplative Prayer seminar at Queen's House of Retreats.  It was an enlightening experience with lots of information and some participation.  One evening one of the ladies mentioned that, in her time of silence that week, she had sensed God laughing. She was somewhat startled but also pleased.

The "laughter of God" is not something we generally think of.  A stern God, a wise God, a pleased or loving God may cross our minds - but a "laughing God" - to speak it or to write it down seems strange and almost sacrilegious.  I'm intrigued by the vision of God's laughter echoing across the hills through the fog, or bounding upon the waves to land with aplomb on the sandy shore....as I, sit in silence awaiting some indication that He is indeed there.

Yesterday, I read from Esther deWaal's, Lost in Wonder, 

Uncrowd my heart, O God,

Until silence speaks

in your still small voice;

turn me from the hearing of words,

and the making of words,

and the confusion of speaking,

to listening,

waiting,

stillness,

silence.

She continues, with reference to the writings of Thomas Merton, "As the silence opens up in our hearts, and as we listen to it, it is as though we begin to feel the secret presence of the Word expanding 'Like a marvellous hidden smile'."

Merton quotes Isaac of Stella, a 12th cry Cistercian:

Let the Son of God grow in thee,

for He is formed in thee.

Let Him become immense in thee,

and may He become a great smile

and exultation and perfect joy.

Several years ago I was introduced to the writings of John O'Donohue, an Irish mystic and philosopher, who wrote a book of blessings, titled Benedictus.  In it was one titled, "A Blessing for Equilibrium" and the last phrase introduced me to the "laughter of God" phrase.

This blessing continues to entice me to listen more deeply not simply for the Word who spoke and yielded up the cosmos... or as Barbara Brown Taylor says, God spoke the logos, the Word "and a solemn procession of creatures steps out of the darkness, so steady on their feet that it is hard to believe they are using them for the first time." But I am enticed to listen more attentively for God's laughter.  

And so, I give you "A Blessing for Equilibrium" in this season of Lent - where the ups and downs created by the tension we invariably experience as we walk the path of Jesus through the Passover to Golgotha, where the joy and the sorrow stir up and unsettle our souls - and ultimately bring them once more to equilibrium, a wellness or a "Shalom"of the soul as Jesus promised, "my Peace I give to you..."

A Blessing for Equilibrium

Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore,

May the music of laughter break through your soul.

As the wind wants to make everything dance,

May your gravity be lightened by grace.

Like the freedom of the monastery bell,

May clarity of mind make your eyes smile.

As water takes whatever shape it is in,

So free may you be about who you become.

As silence smiles on the other side of what’s said,

May a sense of irony give you perspective.

As time remains free of all that it frames,

May fear or worry never put you in chains.

May your prayer of listening deepen enough

To hear in the distance the laughter of God.

~ John O'Donohue ~

(Benedictus - A Book of Blessings)

the making of a painting...

The making of a painting... the "White Roses" took many steps and many days. There always comes the point where I want to throw the painting away and toss my paint box as well... however, that is sometimes a turning point and I've learned to press on a bit further before deciding.  While the "White Roses" is, as most of my paintings tend to be, darker than I wanted, with watercolour one just needs to let it go and promise oneself to be more careful next time!

Time to set it aside for a week before finally deciding if it is worth framing.

Beginnings....

The beginning of a series?

My mind, that is my mind's aspirations, seem to run beyond my abilities and energy! 

Do you ever feel like you are way behind in what you'd like to accomplish - that you just don't have the time to complete what you have planned and that sometimes you wonder if what you have planned makes sense or is realistic?  It's easy to get discouraged and decide I need a 'break' and then, of course, I fall further behind and need to write off or modify my aspirations - once again!

geranium

In planning for a group art show, this coming April, I realized I would need more paintings.  I also realized that paintings always take more time to complete than I expect and when you mix that in with a 'part-time' job, laziness, and now learning to walk after a knee replacement - well, I just know that I need to better manage not only my time but my aspirations.  

So I came up with a plan - a series of smaller 10"x10" watercolours.  The subject matter would be a little piece of a larger picture -  I tend to like to focus in on a part of the whole so this appealed to me.

from a statue in Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah

So far, while I would love to complete about 12 of these, I have only finished the 3 included here!  Actually, I have been surprised at how much time they've taken.  I am coming to realize that smaller paintings can sometimes take almost as much time as larger paintings!  That some, not all, larger paintings are easier to paint than smaller paintings... it really becomes a complex adjustment of how intricate the subject is, how the colour combinations work or don't work out, how quickly or not I lose interest in the painting [which is something that always surprises me], and how long it takes me to settle and get to work - I find it difficult to paint if I don't have a reasonable amount of time.

Oh well - here are the first three - I have a long ways to go on this series and at the moment I am sidetracked by a larger painting, which I "hope" to finish today!!!

So I best get on with it.

Vestigia

Many years have come and gone since I was in grade 11 but -  I have a copy of our Literature class text, A Book of Good Poems and today as I finished a painting I thought I'd look for a poem to maybe go along with the painting.  

The painting is overly bright and when I asked Doug what he thought he simply frowned and didn't say anything!!  So it obviously didn't draw him in - oh well.... Yes, it is obviously more autumn-ish and completely out of place on what I hear is a wonderfully warm winter day - no, I have not ventured out today and have not since last Tuesday when I went to physio for my knee replacement exercise checkup.

While Wilfred Campbell's "Indian Summer" might go best visibly with the painting -
"Along the line of smoky hills
The crimson forest stands,
And all the day the blue-jay calls
Throughout the autumn lands..."

- I've decided to go with 

"Vestigia" by Bliss Carmen

I took a day to search for God,

And found Him not. But as I trod

By rocky ledge, through woods untamed,

Just where one scarlet lily flamed,

I saw His footprint in the sod.

Then suddenly, all unaware,


Far off in the deep shadows, where


A solitary hermit thrush

Sang through the holy twilight hush—

I heard His voice upon the air.

And even as I marvelled how


God gives us Heaven here and now,


In a stir of wind that hardly shook


The poplar leaves beside the brook—

His hand was light upon my brow.

At last with evening as I turned


Homeward, and thought what I had learned


And all that there was still to probe—


I caught the glory of His robe

Where the last fires of sunset burned.

Back to the world with quickening start


I looked and longed for any part


In making saving Beauty be . . .


And from that kindling ecstasy

I knew God dwelt within my heart.

Esther deWaal, Lost in Wonder.... "When we move with poetry and the imagination, when we deal with symbols and images, we become people who are happy with mystery and open to discover. To deepen the mystery, to embrace complexity is risky.  We need to have courage enough to be ready for an unveiling which can be a startling process.... The longer that we stay with an image and dialogue with it, the more will it yield up. 'A symbol should go on deepening' as Flannery O'Connor says.  We have to wait for the image to find us. Sometimes it may come unbidden, but often we must expect to stay with it, and to be ready to go deeper, layer upon layer - always waiting expectantly.  Images are best described - as footholds into a truth that cannot be expressed fully in words...sometimes they come suddenly and easily... and then, they depart suddenly just when we most wanted to hold on to them."

Well, I do like poems which take hold of my imagination and give me a reprieve from the everydayness of life.  I "sometimes" like it when a painting is more imaginative than real and perhaps because of the colours this painting is more imaginative... perhaps it can draw someone into an imaginary place of meaning and contentment before landing them on the dock to walk back into reality.