elise-andréa

Do I know how to use the wind? That is the question. We all experience "wind" - sometimes it feels like it's pushing us back from where we feel we want to go. Sometimes the wind is behind us, making everything go faster and faster. If you are skilled as a sailor, you can use the wind to reach many places, sometimes in a "side-ways fashion", tacking side-to-side but always moving toward the goal.

This is "Windy Day" a 10"x22"canvas print of my original watercolor from 2019.

I am feeling grateful for movement, even if the fog seems thick some days and there are approaching storms. Not all days are smooth sailing, but it's good to just feel the "wind" and use it to be propelled ever forward! This is a scene near where I live by Lake Champlain, Vermont, "Luminous Sails II" a 10x22 watercolor from 2019, which was recently printed on canvas. "He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea." ~ Job 9:8

Again, I felt relieved last night, opening a tube of newly arrived prints on canvas. My relief comes from not having had to paint these, to feel I am reaping the fruit of work done in the past. Creation of "intellectual property", the work of your own hands - it brings a flood of memories, too...and gratitude for the people who helped me gain the initial reference photos. Life is communal. We need each other! This is "Stuart, Dwelling Securely, Forever", a ram lamb photographed in New Zealand in 2007. My new canvas print of Stuart is 8x11 inches, from an original watercolor painted in 2009. The title reminds me I have an eternal home, after losing my earthly one. "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." ~ Psalm 23:6

I have painted for over forty years, and still feel uncertainty when working with new materials, like Mulberry paper. Yesterday I repeated to myself, "I can do this," several times, before adding two more butterflies to this Japanese Sumi-e for the Collector, who has three children. My new butterflies are too similar in distance from each other but I think it works well enough. There is no going back, some things cannot be undone! Feeling grateful for Spring and for the lovely way Life is again appearing from her slumber in every tree and flower!

I have a PRAISE! Today I feel a huge sense of relief, and am so grateful for a godly lady's kind help and giving me so much of her time and gasoline! She helped me move luggage to storage, get some summer clothing, fix my bike tires (another friend GAVE me new tires and then taught me how to change them!), sell two prints (a woman watching the tires being changed bought a print! See"Newborn" below) and find five sheep portrait commissions! Wow, God is so good to me! It's been a long winter. I have not had any commissions since last September!

How am I feeling today? What am I feeling today? Why is this true? I ask myself these questions. Too much thinking.

I am feeling grateful for intangible realities today, and feel content with my simple, unplanned life.

Years ago, I had long LISTS of responsibilities needing to be done the next day...animals and gardens make for a full life! My life has changed significantly over the last decade. While I do still write down reminders for certain things, I don't have the amount of imperative work I once did.

Accepting the way things just ARE is a good feeling.

This painting is a recent watercolor wash study called "Above It All." It depicts rest and peace which can come when birds fly - letting things just be, without tons of planning. "Anticipate Miracles"! #WeAreSyntropy

Feeling Joy and Peace today, after a LONG 3-hour phone conversation with an old friend. She was needing some support in how to Stand Alone in her life. Grateful to be able to witness her Journey and share some of my own.

It's always a delight and joy to share my feelings through watercolor paintings. Vermont's Summer Hills, from memory, are exquisitely beautiful! This is my new 9x21. I am feeling grateful for sight, for health and for friends today!

Over the years, I have often felt like a stick, floating downstream, in a stream or river. Last night it came to me that a stick is a dead object, unconnected to the living soil. I feel the need to change this analogy.

Perhaps the "stick" is only the outward manifestation of the invisible electrical power of the moving water. I feel to be like the river itself is a better analogy. Rivers sometimes are full of water and move swiftly, other times they lack water supply and move more slowly. A river can bring life to the land or great destruction. I feel a need to be more cautious and sensitive with my thoughts, words and actions.

Additionally, I feel a strong need for vision in life, a need for greater purpose.

This past year has revealed my life is most valuable when in connection with people. I have felt grateful for many, many intangible blessings in life.

Yet I also feel persecuted and rejected recently - for my lack of having a "real job", for being dependent on others - inter-dependent to some degree.

I have felt blocked from painting - completely lacking in the will to concentrate.

I feel I am in some "dormant" phase of life. Waiting for rain. A place of transformation.

Thank you, friends, for being courageous in being who you are, loved and precious creations, co-creators with Yah.