Golden Maple Leaf

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Gold Maple Leaf

I did this Fall Maple Leaf as an Anna Mason tutorial. What a joy it was to see the colors develop with layer after layer of slightly different shades of red.

Dad chose two different Maple trees for our backyard. He chose them as shade trees during the summer and for their very different colors. The Silver Maple has jagged leaves that are green on top and silver on the underside. Any little breeze made them flutter and show both colors. They turned yellow in the Fall. The Norway Maple leaves are broad and deep green in the Summer and turn deep red in the Fall. Both trees dropped lots and lots of leaves. We loved to rake them into a huge pile and then jump into the middle scattering the leaves to rake again.

Even as a little girl I appreciated the colors both in Summer and Fall. Those colors only lasted a season and then were gone. What fun I am having learning how to capture the colors and shapes to keep on paper!

Are you making the most of this season in your life? Things you didn’t take time for earlier may be worth taking time to do or enjoy now.

Maple Branch in Graphite

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Mike and I have been taking drives to see Fall colors. I saw this Maple branch and knew I had to try to capture the feelings this invoked, not just the details.

As much as I love watercolor, I like this graphite sketch better. Working in graphite helps me to see details that I never would have seen just looking at a color image.

The Fall colors are glorious yellow, orange, red, and russet. This is God’s promise that there will be new growth and fruitfulness after a rest. God uses the rest time of winter to prepare the trees for more growth and fruitfulness.

We are enjoying the drives and all the color. We believe all the amazing blessings we are experiencing now are the promise that God is preparing us for even more fruitfulness to come when this season is over.

Where are you in this process? In a time of glorious colors? Dropping some things you thought you would always have? Resting, refreshing, refueling? In all seasons God is with you.

Japanese Maple Leaf

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This Japanese Maple leaf was a practice piece from Anna Mason. Because I love red Fall leaves, this was a natural for me to try.

My fascination with Fall colors started at my Aunt Marion’s cottage in Trunkeyville, PA. I have such fond memories of our extended family savoring the brilliant yellow and orange and especially the red leaves on the hill across the river. We worked hard on those weekends to winterize the cottage since no one would use it during the winter. But we stopped often to look at the colors all around us.

These are wonderful memories that still spur me on to venture out to find and enjoy Fall colors. What good memories do you have that remind you of what is good ? We all have some unhappy memories, too. Don’t nurse them and rehearse them. Is there something you can do today to redeem that memory? If there is, do it. If not, offer it to God and leave it with Him. Then do something to make a new, good memory.

God bless you and remind you of good and beautiful memories today and through this week.

Black-eyed Susan Vine

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On our morning walks in Strasburg, we enjoy the gardens people have planted. We see these Black-eyed Susan Vines near our Main Street.

I wanted to try to show these bright flowers with the thick background of leaves. As the background got darker with each layer, the flowers stood out more and more. This made me think about how our world and culture seem to grow darker and darker. Our lives should stand out more and more as our surroundings darken.

Jesus said, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” (Mat 5:16, NASB)

Let’s not be tempted to blend into our culture. Let’s stand out like these little Black-eyed Susan Vines.

Marigold Blossom

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Have you ever stopped to really look at a Marigold blossom? I never had. Since childhood, I’ve always loved Marigolds. Since they usually are short and with so many more like themselves, I never looked at just one.

They are complicated, with many different shaped petals around a very complicated center with a great variety of shades and tones. This was so much fun for me to paint about four times bigger than real life.

Each one of us are complicated. We have many obvious parts to our lives. But we also have complicated inner lives. God took such great care to create so many details in a flower that we seldom really look at. We see the big bunch or a whole garden border. We see the bold and beautiful color, but not all the variations. God cares about us, too. Not just the crowd of us, but each and every one of us. He planned for us! He provided for us! He loves us-everyone!