Take Me Deeper - September Week 2

What a difference we're seeing here in the UK as Autumn creeps ever closer! The mining bees are now out in our garden in full force, resulting in a retreat by all of us, even the dog! The mornings see a bit of a nip in the air, but our days this week have been wall to wall blue skies and sunshine!

I followed one of Diane Marra's videos yesterday, having bought some watercolour crayons a week or so ago after seeing her working with them, and have made a couple of backgrounds for pages! I really enjoyed myself!! So there IS life after digi lol! It's years since I last used paint/paper/glue and it was so much fun!

I'm rather inspired at present by what my youngest daughter (who is home educated) and I are seeing under our new microscope! The patterns that we never knew existed within nature as they're usually invisible to the naked eye are so captivating, I'm seriously thinking of buying another microscope for myself that can attach to my PC, and then using the images to create some digital papers/elements! They'd definitely be unique lol!

For now though, here are my artwork and my thoughts for this week's devotionals - very timely and apt considering my situation at present!

September Week 2 - The Promise of Forgiveness

This was very timely for me and I came back to it three times to re-read! From the reading I did I gleaned that God promises us forgiveness, but it is conditional upon our response. It is our choice to forgive and the Holy Spirit will help us.

I read John 6:37 - "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out" - whoever = anyone; He turns nobody away.

And 1 Peter 5:7 - Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

I wanted to encompass a feeling of freedom that can come from our forgiving, and also the blessings that can come from that. I wanted the piece to feel personal, with a real sense that we are cared for.

So, I used a solitary figure, alone on the hillside, 'coming to the Father', and the white light 'spots' around her are representing the blessings flowing from her forgiving another. There is a wispy smoke-effect raising heavenward, representing both the Holy Spirit helping her, but also the freedom she is gaining through her actions.

I kept to my personal little challenge and used the same 5 textures, just in a different order and with different blend modes. I like how the piece has the same feel as last week's piece but is different!

I used CU textures and brushes, and one of the HKC digital shapes.
TFL!
Bernie x

Take Me Deeper - May Week 1

I'm feeling rather desperate today! Desperate to get back to creating and having the time at the computer to create and to visit HKC and really focus on those things! There's been a lot of 'life' going on the past couple of weeks! Hopefully things will calm for a week or so now until the next highly stressful event on 11th May - can't really talk about that on here but let's just say I'll be glad when it's out of the way, not for my sake but that of others! 

Anyway, yesterday we had our first visit from the Local Education Authority rep and she was a very nice lady, very supportive, and totally happy with where we are on our Home Education adventure! I wasn't worried but it was still a hoop to have to jump through; but tis done now!

So, onwards for now! As always, if you'd like to join in with Take Me Deeper, just register at His Kingdom Come and join the class! Simple as that! It's a wonderful project and has brought me so many blessings!

May Week 1 - Sustainable Living

I was so ready to read this!! Being aware how it SO much easier said than done though, I was happy to start reading the suggested passages!

I read a lot of Jesus going to 'a lonely place' or being 'alone', praying, and also looking after the Disciples by taking them to 'some place where we will be alone' so they could rest for a while. Going up a hill is mentioned, as is being in a boat.

The Psalms gave strong images of God as our refuge, our shelter, our protector. There were two in particular that really touched me:

Psalm 63:1-5
O God you are my God, and I long for you. My whole being desires you; like a dry, worn-out, and waterless land, my soul is thirsty for you. Let me see you in the sanctuary; let me see how mighty and glorious you are. Your constant love is better than life itself, and so I will praise you. I will give you thanks as long as I live; I will raise my hands to you in prayer. My soul will feast and be satisfied, and I will sing glad songs of praise to you.

and Psalm 121: 1-8
I look to the mountains;
where will my help come from?
My help will come from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
He will not let you fall;
Your protector is always awake.
The protector of Israel never dozes or sleeps.
The Lord will guard you;
he is by your side to protect you.
The sun will not hurt you during the day,
nor the moon during the night.
The Lord will protect you from all dangers,
he will keep you safe.
He will protect you as you come and go
now and forever.

So at this point I had a completely different image in my head to what I produced - as usually seems to be the way lol! Focusing more on Psalm 63, I had an image of a dry, parched earth, with rain falling on top and lush green, fertile areas where it fell. However, I didn't get time to actually create anything along those lines, and when I came to re-read everything and actually fire up the Photoshop a few days later, the main thing that I wanted to portray was a sense of peace and calm.

At this stage Psalm 121 pulled me in more, and I wanted to use the image of mountains, also tying in with the Gospel readings that mentioned Jesus going up a hill, to a lonely place - somewhere with no distractions and where he could pray, even all night long, as he wished.

Again this week I started with a couple of textures and blended them, which gave the impression of certain shapes. I was literally amazed as I just pulled in random shapes, using brushes, changed blending modes, and suddenly a mountainous landscape appeared on the page! I created a path leading off up into the hills and kept the colours cool, which I hope gives a feeling of calm and peace! I wanted this to look like a pleasant place not a foreboding one! I added the stars in the sky to illustrate the 'I look to the mountains; where will my help come from?' in Psalm 121 - our Father is always present and there helping us; sometimes we just need to take time out, go up our hill, and feel closer to Him, in order to appreciate that!

TFL!
Bernie x