Beautiful Brushstrokes.....

"One cannot collect all the shells on the beach."

Anne Morrow Lindbergh - Gifts From The Sea

Have you ever studied a painting closely? Have you ever noticed the values of light and shadow? Have you ever noticed how all the colors are blended and formed into a shape? Have you ever noticed all the tiny brushstrokes that go into creating a landscape, still life, or any other type of painting? Have you ever seen a work of art that just spoke to you and to you alone? You knew when you saw it that it was yours, it sent a message straight to your heart and you then desired to own it?

All of these things happened to me when I saw a painting by Helen Read of Brushstrokes Etc. Helen does wonderful tiny daily paintings of many subjects and styles. The first painting of hers that I saw captured me not so much for its subject, but for its colors and her explanation of it. It drew me in and kept me coming to her site again and again to see what she would come with next. I went to her online gallery and fell in love with three specific paintings, sadly one had already sold. There was one in that group that reached out and grabbed me with its special message for me alone and I desired to have it as my very own. I asked Santa (hubby) to put it at the top of my Christmas list along with some hand made jewelry by another artist out there in blog land. I honestly did not expect to get it, I thought I would be making the purchase myself after the holiday. On Christmas morning the last present under the tree was for me and it was the painting! I beamed, squealed, danced, and ran to the computer to email Helen immediately.

This little painting is of a shell and a small glass bottle. I can see every brushstroke that went into making a flat object look dimensional. I can see how the values of colors are blended just right to create depth and how light and shadow are used to give the illusion of reality to the piece. I can see each little beautiful brushstroke that went into making this piece of art. But more than that I can see a message from God to me in this small painting.

I love the ocean and we vacation at one shore or another almost every year. I have a collection of photos and shells from all the places we have traveled. My little writing cottage is where I display all my treasures and it is decorated in the cool calm colors of the sea. Its shelves have favorite books with titles like, Gift's From the Sea and Sea Edge. When I saw this painting, I knew it belonged in my writing cottage.

Two messages were gifted to me in this painting. The first gift is a reminder of the depth of forgiveness and is represented in the image of the shell. The creatures that inhabit shells travel along the bottom of the sea at depths I could never fathom. Scripture says that God has compassion on us and will hurl our iniquities into the depths of the sea. Can you imagine such great mercy, compassion, and willingness to forgive? The beautiful brushstrokes of this shell remind me to extend that same measure of compassion, mercy, and willingness to forgive to those around me.

The second gift, the bottle, is a reminder of the depth of compassion God has towards us. Scripture says that He puts my tears in a bottle, that when I cry to Him, I can know that He is for me. He cares about what concerns me and is so compassionate that not one tear escapes His notice.

I see in this painting not only the beautiful brushstrokes from the hand of Helen but the beautiful brushstrokes from God upon my life. He too uses light and shadow to give my life dimension. He blends His values into my life painting to create depth of character and reality to the difference He makes in me. He is using each little brushstroke to make me into a work of art. I only hope that I can represent Him well and that I will be well blended into the background as others see God's brushstrokes in this small painting that is me.

May His beautiful brushstrokes create in you a work of heart that others desire to own for themselves.

Blessings,

Miss Sandy