Beautiful Mizrahi

Beautiful Mizrahi

20" x 16"

Acrylic on canvas

$650

Also available as prints and note cards.

As an artist, I am always fascinated by unusual uses of color and brilliant displays.  Sometimes I see runway models and print models with fabulous splashes of color and it inspires me to paint.  Although I could not use the vivid blues and turquoise of the make-up artist's work, which was what first attracted me, I turned a close-up image of her face and hands into a dancing angel with falcon wings and eyelashes.  I let her wings exhibit the fabulous colors.  And when I stood [transfixed, I admit it] before the finished painting, I was clueless as to what to name her.  Friends on the internet helped me with many lovely suggestions.  After reading about the Mizrahi dance, music and cultural/social movement, that had to be it! It fit perfectly; but even that name simply wasn't exuberant enough, so she became Beautiful Mizrahi.  I hope you will search online for Mizrahi music and listen.  It will bless you!

Zephaniah 3:17 (Amplified version)

The Lord your God is in the midst of you, a mighty One, a Savior - Who saves!  He will rejoice over you with joy; He will rest [in silent satisfaction] and in His love He will be silent and make no mention [of past sins, or even recall them]; He will exult over you with singing.  ... and somewhere it says: and dance over you with joy!  I figure if our Lord dances over His people with joy, the angels will all join in!

Worship

Worship

24" x 20"

Oil and Gold Leaf foil on canvas

SOLD

Available in prints and as note cards

This piece began as an emotive piece for me to stretch a little between other more realistic ones.  It was a "feel good" exercise, and to my surprise it kept right on making me feel good all the way to the finish!  It was really enjoyable to do a more abstracted image for a change.  Last year, 2010, was the first time I ever knew how much abstracted pieces would capture my focus and heart.  I did 14 of them last year!

The angels here, unlike the ones I've been painting recently, have no faces or distinctions between them.  They are worshipping God en masse, in a concert of gently swaying movements, with the hems of their garments seemingly flowing out from one garment of praise.

As I was working on this painting with great joy, I felt that the Lord let me know it was going to sell.  I was slightly frustrated with that news, since I'm still in the wrong-headed process of measuring the worth of abstracted pieces versus more realistic ones....

The woman who bought this (before it had even dried, within hours of my adding my signature!) said to me that these are the exact colors in their master bedroom, even down to the more copper tone I used on the gallery wrap edges!  As she drew close enough to see individual color dots in the wings, she exclaimed that the darker blues are the same shade as her accent pillows!  So, I don't know if you will agree with me, but my sense is that this piece was done FOR her, for her home, for her enjoyment and blessing.  This certainly is not close to any of my frequently chosen palettes.  And it makes me happy to have created something beautiful for someone else, like a commission piece, but without knowing ahead of time that was what I was doing!

Because she is military, I've chosen the following song of worship for this painting:

Revelation 15:4  "Great and wonderful are the things You have done,

                                      Adonai, God of heaven's armies!

                                        Just and true are Your ways,

                                             King of the nations!

                             Adonai, Who will not fear and glorify Your Name?

                                        Because You alone are holy,

                              All nations will come and worhsip before You,

                               For Your righteous deeds have been revealed.

Awaiting Resurrection

Awaiting Resurrection

18" x 36"

Acrylic on canvas, ornate frame

$900

After I came through a time of exhausting spiritual warfare, I turned to some reference photos taken in a cemetery in Huntington, West Virginia.  Painting this lovely statue brought me such peace.  I've got the feeling she represents Mary, the Mother of Jesus.  I have asked others why she would be holding a wreath on her arm, and their answers seem to match mine.  We're not sure, but it looks as if perhaps this is the crown of the redeemed which this person, over whom she is standing, will receive in heaven...  Why it would be flowers, I don't know.  (Since then, I have found many cemetery statues of angels holding floral wreaths, as well.)  I love her pensive stance, and the sweet patience she exudes.  She helped me to breathe deeply and bring my soul to a more restful place.  I hope she metes out the same kind of peace and well-being to you.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Angel of Deliverance

Angel of Deliverance

30" x 50"

Acrylic on gallery wrap canvas

SOLD

Also available as prints and note cards.

Seemingly from the very beginning of man's understanding of Almighty God, I Am that I Am, El Shaddai (and all of the other names by which He's made Himself known) we have also heard of His ministering spirits.  He sends His angels on missions of mercy and missions of destroying wrath.  They tenderly guard children on their way and they destroyed all of Egypt's firstborn in the days of Pharaoh.  They worship at the throne of God and obey His commands.  One of my favorite contemporary Christian songs is Amy Grant's "Angels Watchin' Over Me".

When I set my heart on the painting of a descending angel coming to the rescue, I asked a fellow artist and friend of mine to model for me.  We weren't able to do the photo session in time for me to finish what I had purposed to undertake in time for my One Person Show called "Heaven Among Us", May of 2011.  We'll get that done one day.  But instead of postponing my idea any longer, I let it flow from my imagination.  Here is a less realistiic, more cartoon version of the Angel of Deliverance, who is coming to lift the viewer out of crisis and carry him/her off to safety.

Psalm 34:7

The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and he delivers them.

Note:  If you were looking for posts here in May, I apologize.  I was preparing and displaying my first One Person Show called "Heaven Among Us", and now finally have time to breathe.  And post.  :-)

If you are enjoying my blog and images, I hope you will become a 'follower', and send me a note or comment.  Blessings!

A Gathering of Angels



Seraphic Convergence

A Gathering of Angels

18" x 24" each

$800/pair

For the past several years, we've worked at Olde Towne Art to have various showings in our front gallery that have expressed themes, intersperced with shows of new works.  The gallery changes out each month on First Friday, so the paintings are displayed for a whole month at a time.  One of the themes we did was based on all black and white pieces.  In 2010 we decided to do a Black and White Plus One show, meaning there could be a small amount of one added color besides the black, white and gray scale.

I decided to do a pair of paintings representing a set of angel wings, and went to work praying and painting with my palette knife, not sure exactly where God would lead me.  As the wings formed, it seemed to me that they also began to look like mountainous terrain with steppes and that there were some beings descending those steppes.  As a matter of fact, they seemed to be all over the place!

When I began to add a wash of transparent yellow to emphasize the robed figures I was seeing, the scenes felt more and more holy to me.  It seemed obvious that they represented angels, even though there was not one wing to be found aside from the background image... and I never heard of angels with hoods! ... but it wasn't at all creepy.  It actually felt sacred.

So, I kept on praying and painting and watching these surreal images form under my knife and brush.  There are many more that could have been 'highlighted' with the yellow, but for the composition of the pieces, the ones that are visible feel like enough.  If you take a close look, I'm sure you'll find more!  I've titled this pair of paintings Seraphic Convergence I and II, A Gathering of Angels.  I hope you enjoy them.