Presence

This week I discovered a new FB group - Magical Mixed Art Community - & have been enjoying the BEAUTIFUL pieces members have been submitting! One pair of paintings struck a chord, and resonate with one of my stories, so I've begun a new piece: Presence.

Background & outline

In 1992, several days after my dear dad died, I was sitting in one of the Meadow pools at Breitenbush retreat center where I worked. I happened to glance up at the sky, & saw my father's profile in the clouds! I casually asked the friend with me to look up, & tell me what HE saw ... "Um, your father's face?!" ...
When my dad was in High School in the 20s, he learned to type. One of their projects was to do images with type: a US flag & their own profile! My dad, dutifully did both, & proudly saved them. He had a distinctive nose & wavy hair .... one cloud above us - that profile!

filling in the face

So when my mom died 12 years later, & my oldest granddaughter was sad, I told her we should look for my mom's face in the clouds, & we'd always find fuzzy little cloud faces that we identified as Lois.  Nothing as distinct as my dad's profile (which stayed for several hours, before gradually fading) but quite comforting.

My women's spiritual book group is currently reading Jessica Maxwell's "Roll Around Heaven," a delightful spiritual memoir, which begins with a chapter about her dad's death, and .... seeing HIS face (holographic) FILLING the sky three days later!! She wasn't going to tell anyone, till her sister called, and said "You'll never guess what I saw!!" ... um, dad's face? ....

Mary          Lois          Nadya

Face & hair

So when I saw the paintings with a woman's face in the sky, I thought of  painting of my mom, smiling in the sky! She cherished a set of photos she framed of herself, her mom & me between 18 & 20 years old (she's in the middle), so I used my mom young woman as my starting point! She was born in 1912, & her mom in the 1880s)


I had a 'Flying Dutchman' painting on canvas that I picked up somewhere, & have thought of painting over, so that seemed perfect. (you can see a vague outline of the ship, with the darker ocean on the right in the first picture)

I've used the colour of woman model of painting the background, then the outline of young Lois (I didn't do a distinct portal this time), then filling in face & neck, hair, & background.
Next comes the glaze, then more details! I like the hint of a heart surrounding the face!

On Saturday our Church is having an art show, Artspiration, and we can display up to three pieces per person. I've been working on 'Ariadne's Red Thread' (I'll post pics soon), and "Presence," with my third piece a sumi picture for the Year of the Dragon.

My Colour of Woman teacher Elisabeth plans to show a piece as well.
I've been haunting the art store, picking up new paints, brushes, supplies, & found that my music stand works well for an easel, at least for these smaller pictures! (this one's 12 x 16")