Take Me Deeper - August Week 1

Trying to get back to some normality after recent weeks' events with the rabbits and their sufferings! I'm so pleased to be creating again! It's school holidays now and so my time seems to be cut even shorter, but I managed this piece in a couple of hours!

August Week 1 - Thankful in ALL things.

When I saw what the theme for August was going to be I was really pleased as it felt like just what I needed! Then, of course, I came across the word 'joyful'!

For some reason I really struggle with that word when relating it to myself! I just don't feel that I'm a joyful person! I have fun, happiness, love, faith  but just can't make that leap to seeing myself as joyful! No idea why! Maybe I've just got this image in my head of a joyful person laughing and leaping into the air with gay abandon and I'm more of an introvert and sedate type.
But on reading Phil. 4:4-9 it came to me that being joyful could perhaps not only be about outward and obvious signs of joy but also about the asking God for what we need, asking with a thankful heart, not worrying and having our hearts and minds kept safe by God's peace. Inward signs and experiences and actions constituting joyfulness. A quieter, unseen kind of joy. Mmm I'm still working that around in my head!

So, I felt I might struggle a bit to represent joyful in my art - really feel it, I mean. Still, I pressed on!

I did the suggested reading and found Ephesians 5:15-20  really meaningful. Probably because of the ongoing situation in our Parish but also because of recent events with an online stalker (for want of a better term):
So be careful how you live. Don't live like ignorant people, but like wise people. Make good use of every opportunity you have, because these are evil days. Don't be fools, then, but try to find out what the Lord wants you to do. Do not get drunk with wine, which will ruin you; instead be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with the words of psalms, hymns and sacred songs; sing hymns and psalms to the Lord with praise in your hearts. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, always give thanks for everything to God the Father.

When it came to the art I drew a blank and then recalled Matthew 6: 28-30 which mentions the grass being clothed and the wild flowers. Which gave me the idea for this piece. I really hope it has a feeling of joyfulness within it as well as thankfulness! The wild flowers raising their heads to the light, growing from the darkness and still with some darkness around, but ever stretching upwards!

Two CU textures used along with a lot of (CU) brushwork.
TFL!
Bernie x