"Raah"

SOLD"Raah", 8x10, oil on canvas

My friend Joyce recently told me that the Hebrew word "raah' means to see. She said it's the kind of "seeing" that God did when He made creation and He saw that it was good.. It's not just a physical seeing. It's a spiritual seeing. It's a gift from God and not from ourselves when we can see this way.

Painting this rose was a revelation for me in many ways. My sweet friend Holly had sent me the picture of the rose and had encouraged me to try to paint it. But I didn't want to. Holly knows everything there is to know about roses. That's what she does for a living. So I knew that she would look at my rose with an expert eye, and I didn't want to fall short. In the end, I forced myself to paint it in a realistic style, which does not come natural or easy for me, but which is the style most befitting a rose this lovely.

Trying to render this rose with accuracy was hard, but it forced me to see in a whole new way. I had to study that rose and every single petal it contained in order to see it with brand new eyes. I discovered that the rose is an incredibly complex thing to paint. It has multiple petals, and each and every petal has it's own set of curving planes, some parts of the petal turning towards the light, some parts facing away from the light, some catching reflected light and some catching highlights. It took me a long time to paint this rose. But in the end I was glad that I forced myself to do it, as it enabled me to see the beauty and complexity of the rose in a whole different way- much different from the typical abstract palette knife strokes I generally use to haphazardly render one of God's most gorgeous creations.

This is Thanksgiving week. I give thanks to Holly for encouraging me to do something that I didn't want to do. And I give thanks to my friend Joyce for helping me understand difficult Bible concepts. Most of all, I give thanks to God for helping me see many things in ways that I had never seen before. And in enabling me to paint this rose, God has given me a new confidence in my painting abilities.

This rose will be a Christmas gift this year, so it is not for sale. But thank-you for visiting my blog.