Painting Challenge

As Brittany and I have been doing a lot of art lately we've noticed that we have very different styles of expression. It took me awhile to figure it out but finally I narrowed it down to this: Brittany draws with more of a focus on the lines and I draw with more of a focus on the spaces.
Upon this realization we decided it would be fun for each of us to draw the same picture just see how different our perspectives are. Brittany found a lovely painting to copy and we sat down one night at the table, supplies all around us, papers in front of us... brushes in hand.

First step was an outline...

Brittany's sketch:


My sketch:


The next step was to start painting...

 

I always learn new art techniques when I'm with Brittany. I always thought paint was paint and you simply applied it to your paper. Not so. Brittany mixed her colors down with water to give the picture a softer look. I really liked it!

Brittany's painting halfway done:

 

My painting halfway done:

For me the hard part came at the end. Adding the finishing touches, knowing that you can't change a whole lot but that even the little brush strokes make a huge difference and can dramatically help or hurt.

Here's the original masterpiece:

Here is Brittany's finished painting. I love how she had ripped her tape that she used for edging the paper. It gave it a really neat effect!

Here's my finished painting. 

It is fantastic to see the end results!! Definitely as we suspected... Brittany worked the lines and I was working the space. It was good my taped edge was straight because it added stability to my painting. Brittany's ripped tape added character to her picture. I also think it's interesting that her initial sketch started out as dark and pronounced and ended up soft with pale tones, whereas my sketch was light and soft and ended up in dark, bold tones.

What a fun adventure art can be! Until next time...

Squigglism

Brittany and I had a little fun one night. She introduced a new concept to me. I nicknamed it "squigglism". We each took a blank paper and made random squiggles on them. Then we traded papers and turned the nonsense into a picture. It was a great excersize in creative thinking! Here are the before and after pictures we made:

My squiggle:
 












...transformed by Brittany:

Brittany's squiggle:














...how I transformed it:














My squiggle:













...transformed by Brittany:













Brittany's squiggle:














...how I transformed it:














It's a fun exercise. You should give it a whirl sometime! ;)

Green Is The New Gold

It is finally Fall here on the farm. All of the plant life hails the end of the growing season by the turning of greens to browns or other autumn colors. However, as you can see in the picture above, not everything is a dull color yet. The lime green field is an alternative forage that my dad planted this year due to the lack of hay and silage from last years drought. It is called sorghum sudangrass and prefers less rain and lots of heat as it was originally intended for and grown in Northeastern Africa. I'm enjoying it's addition to the farmscape.

This Spring when I had my friends Courtney and Christopher up to visit I was browsing through a book of Christopher's on wild edible plants and noticed one which goes all over our farm and that I've always considered to be a weed. I read in this book that you could make marshmallows the old fashioned way out of this weed. All summer long I walked past a ton of these plants that adorned the cow lanes by the barn and kept thinking I should try using them. I could only remember they could be used to make marshmallows when I finally looked for information on Google, and therefore, I spent a good deal of time researching the marshmallow plant. I was a bit discouraged at first because all the pictures of marshmallow plants and their flowers looked very different from the little weed I was familiar with. At last I stumbled upon an explaination. This weed was not a marshmallow plant but rather the common mallow which is, I discovered, a cousin to marshmallow and also okra!

What marshmallow plants look like:

What common mallow plants look like:

There are some really cool, close up photos of the common mallow that a fellow in Canada took with a few nifty cameras: Photographs

Notice that the marshmallow plant grows tall and the common mallow tends to grown more like a ground cover. Being cousins though, they have similar properties and common mallow plants can be used for all of the same things as the marshmallow although they are less effective.  

Anyways, since I had read in Christopher's book that you could make marshmallows out of common mallow as the plant is mucilaginous, a couple of weeks ago I decided to see what this whole marshmallow business was all about. Luckily, I had some help picking the little fruits, also called "cheeses", from my sister Nellie and also from Brittany. A time consuming endeavor!

Here you see our collection of fruits:

Getting our tools and ingredients ready:

It wasn't a terribly long process but we started it around 6pm so it took the rest of the evening. Due to the summer heat and the lateness of the hour we were rather hot and tired by the end of it all.
It was Brittany's brilliant idea to make our own little YouTube video of our marshmallow adventure. It's a bit long, but then again, it's a longer process. The results were.. well, curious.
You can our experiment here: Making Marshmallows

The truth is, learning about the common mallow online was hard to do... when there were so many other interesting plants to learn about as well!!!
My mom owns an herb book too that I'd thumbed through but never really applied or studied a whole lot. Suddenly reading through it along with the information I found through Google opened a whole world of possibilities. I traveled down a number of rabbit trails and was constantly telling the nearest person about some awesome weed growing outside that could change their life! Sadly, since the Fall season is upon us, and with the number of harvest-able plants dwindling, I went out and gathered whatever I could find. Unfortunately I just missed the mullein season, but I found yarrow, common mallow, plantain, and nettle... all of these being ubiquitous in this region and therefore easy to obtain. (I also accidentally stumbled upon self-heal/heal-all, thinking it looked like hops)!

With these precious greens and other herbs my sister Emily donated to the cause I decided to make a salve. First I watched a video online about how to make salves to make sure I was doing it all right.

Then I stuffed a quart jar with a number of different herbs that had external healing properties covered them with coconut oil and a little extra virgin olive oil and put it in the crock-pot on low for a few days to be infused.

At first the jar kept floating in the water so I had to weight the jar down. Finally I decided to stir the herbs and oil a few times to get the air bubbles out. 

The last step was to strain the oil out of the herbs with a cheese cloth and melt beeswax into the infused oil, being careful not to overheat it. Then I added some essential oil and grapefruit seed extract to help preserve the salve and I put it into small jars. Needless to say it made a LOT more than I expected it to. I'm going to have to buy a number of smaller jars and I'll probably give a bunch of it away, because I don't know how my family will be able to use all of it. I am excited to see how well it works.
The trick with herbal remedies is that they take a lot more patience and time to use and people are so accustomed to pharmaceutical drugs which usually work much more rapidly than herbs, though they aren't as healthy.

It looks green enough to work! ;)

I have learned so far that herbs take time: Time to learn about them, time to prepare them and time to apply them. In the long run I think it'll pay off though. It's the wealth in every weed patch that God has provided for us and I'm excited to learn more about what He has in store for us out of doors...

Genesis 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

For Ages 18-38

I guess there are folks out there who are interested in what parents could do to raise godly children. What did those of us who grew up in religious homes experience? What were we taught? What of our education did we retain? 
A fellow named Dr. Brian Ray created a survey and would like you to help him out in his search for information.
Click this link: Gen2Survey
...and let Dr. Ray know how well you liked growing up in a Christian household. Who knows? His results may influence the future generations of childhood education and the importance of raising kids in the admonition of the Lord.

Scavenger Hunt!

A family at church decided it would be fun to do a photograph scavenger hunt, so yesterday after church we did! We split into two teams and each team had a camera and designated one member to take all of the pictures. The goal was to attempt to only take one picture, in essence we had one shot to demonstrate each of the requirements on our list. Then we'd judge to see whose picture turned out best in portraying each objective. However, it just wouldn't work out for us to judge our own work....

So..... we decided it would be really fun if YOU participated in our fun and helped us out! Please leave a comment and let us know which group you thought captured the best shot for each task.
(please note: those who participated in the Photo Scavenger Hunt are not eligible to vote but all others are welcome.)

Here was our list that we had to fulfill:
1. "I can't believe we all fit in here!"
2. "Can you find us?"
3. Everyone's reflection in something other than a mirror
4. Doing exactly what a sign says
5. Getting ready for church
6. Everyone doing the same job
7. Applying a Bible verse
8. Picture taken with a street name beginning with the first letter of the last names in the group.

Team One:
Rachel F. (the appointed photographer), Karen F., Josiah F., Channing R., Patrick R., Janelle R.

Team Two:
J.c. P. (the appointed photographer), Shelly P., Jack P., Sarah F., Daniel F., Victoria F., Isaac R., Mary Ellen R.

First Picture....
1. "I can't believe we all fit in here!"

 Team 1, piled into Billy's truck!

 

Team 2, piled into the back of Mary Ellen's car!

Second Picture...

2. "Can you find us?"

 Team 1

 

Team 2

Third Picture...

3. Everyone's reflection in something other than a mirror

 Team 1

Team 2

(It should be noted that Shelly is not really in this picture although you can see whisps of her hair in the bottom right corner. Also J.c., the photographer made it into this picture!)

Fourth Picture...

 4. Doing exactly what a sign says

Team 1

(It should be noted that The United Church of Christ is NOT the church we attend)

Team 2

Fifth Picture...

5. Getting ready for church

 Team 1

Team 2

Sixth Picture...
6. Everyone doing the same job

 Team 1

Team 2

(It should be noted that Team Two was down three members because they had to leave before this picture was taken)

Seventh Picture...
7. Applying a Bible verse

Team 1

2 Timothy 2:15 

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, 

a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, 

rightly dividing the word of truth.

Team 2

Romans 6:13 

Neither yield ye your members as  

 instruments of unrighteousness unto sin:  

but yield yourselves unto God, 

as those that are alive from the dead, 

and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

Eighth Picture...
8. Picture taken with a street name beginning with the first letter of the last names in the group.

Team 1

(It should be noted that since Team One was not able to find street names that began with the letters R and F they decided that desired letters on the back of the stop sign would work as a substitute. They did not, however, write the letters on the stop sign.)

Team 2

 Team 2

(It should also be noted that Team Two did not find a street name with the letter P)
(An interesting observation: although Team Two had an extra letter to find, they happened to find the same two letters that the other group had to find)

The Church

About a week ago I was reading The Economist magazine, as I often do, and an article about the fighting between the Christians and Muslims in Egypt caught my attention and with the article was a single picture of a destroyed church.

At first glace the picture looked like it would be too dark for my taste in art or too tedious to draw, but it intrigued me so at work I went staying up too late a few too many nights laying the dark pastel colors on a white page and getting my white skin covered as well in the process. (washing up after working with pastels was always amusing: I usually had dark streaks all over my face and my arms looked either bruised or entirely blackened!)

I'm not sure if it was the eery elegance of the cathedral that inspired me to draw the picture or the story behind it:
The picture the magazine has supplied was of a recently built Coptic Church that had been even more recently destroyed by Muslims. The Muslims were apparently provoked by some deed of the Christians... or was it the Christians who were provoked first by some action of the Muslims...???
I'm not any expert on the dynamics of the fighting between the Muslims and Christians on the other side of the world but I do know that neither side is innocent in matters of keeping the peace or turning the other cheek. It seems to be more of an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth system out there? I cannot say for sure though.
Still, looking at the dark and dusty, ash-ridden ruins of a cathedral brought to mind verses from the Bible.

Matthew 16:18, And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

(A common misunderstanding of the verse above, especially misunderstood and misused by the Catholic Church, is that Peter is the rock but really it is Jesus Christ who is the rock.)
Although we Christians often meet in a building, or a house the real temple of God is the church the body of Christ. (1 Cor. 3:11, For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.)
Therefore it is no surprise when we read in chapters like 1 Corinthians 3 that we are God's building simply by the fact that the church is the body of Christ and we are a part of Jesus Christ for we are indwelt by Him.

1 Corinthians 3:9, For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.

1 Corinthians 3:16, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

1 Corinthians3:23, And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.

It is sad to see Christians persecuted (no matter what denomination of Christianity they label themselves as),  but I am also reminded of the comforting words of Romans 8:35-39, Romans 12:9-21 and especially 2 Corinthians 4...
 

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; 

we are perplexed, but not in despair;
Persecuted, but not forsaken; 

cast down, but not destroyed...

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, 

worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 

For God, 

who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, 

hath shined in our hearts, 

to give the light of the knowledge of 

the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Therefore seeing we have this ministry, 

as we have received mercy, 

we faint not...

Oil Paint

Brittany let me try out her oil paints. She was doing art on some wood so I decided I'd try doing the same. The oils definitely applied much differently on wood than they would have on canvas so I don't know that I could say I 'got the picture' of what using oil paints is like, but it was a fun experiment! 

The curves and veins of the wood naturally urged a sun and a horizon. I'd thought of doing a country scene but wasn't sure if a lot of green would really look like much at all on a piece of wood, and after having studied the Lake Michigan shoreline on my fishing trip with Courtney and Co. I'd already established a watery scene in my mind. With so many options and so little time my motto was this: When in doubt draw a tropical scape.

A Little Tid-Bit

It's crazy to think that exactly three years ago tonight I was at a redneck hay-wagon dance, celebrating the night before my dear friend Sandy's wedding. It was much colder that night but we sure were having a good time! Due to the coldness we ended up moving the dance into the barn. There is something rather elegant about white lights strung up in a stanchion barn. Ah... what a good time!

Here I am playing my ukelele in the warm sunshine, amidst the weeds and the bees. When there is perfect weather one must venture out of doors to appreciate God's incredible handiwork... and sing a tune or two with the birds. :)

Brittany and I made lemon meringue pie for Nellie's birthday. It was the first time I'd used corn starch in a pie. The best part, of course, was shaping the meringue and then taking it out of the oven to behold the perfectly browned peaks!

I framed the picture of Natalia. The frame was a little bigger than the picture so I found some scrapbook paper and made an edge. It's always quite a fun project and the end result is satisfying.

...and speaking of artwork, I'm in the middle of a sketch right now. I nabbed my parent's handy-dandy reading light and clipped it onto my art desk! It's extremely useful!

Today was quite productive. My Grammy came over and we chopped and canned tomatoes all day. It's just that season. The harvest time.
As soon as I publish this post I'm heading to my room to enjoy the remainder of my night off by continuing the pastel sketch of a cathedral. I also have the tea pot heating on the stove. A cup of warmth will be quite fitting for the chilly evening.
The end of Summer is here. Fall is just around the corner...

Until next time.