Floral Flowers Red Tulip

An Unexpected Joy

Pastel

Image size: 7.5 x 9.5

Matted, ready to frame

Somewhere, nestled deep inside our most difficult struggles, when problems have piled up so high that they become mountains of stress, despair, and hopelessness, God plants a surprise, a little gift that says,"Cheer up, I'm here, I love you and I am still in charge."  No big, mountain moving miracle, just a little gem of reassurance that God is still in His Heaven - and His earth - and that everything is under control.  Not my control, of course, but when I really analyze it, things are better off with God doing His thing than with me doing mine.

Last week, I was "enjoying" a solitary lunch of canned chicken soup - Healthy Choice Chicken with Rice, if it matters - because I had developed a rather nasty spring cold had no appetite for real food.  Besides the cold, I was facing a mountain of worries, responsibilities and forks in the road that seemed too much for me to handle. In the middle of my "meal," though, I looked up and found myself staring at a bouquet of tulips that my husband had brought in from the garden earlier in the week.  Most of them were pretty well spent, but there was this one lovely bloom,  beautifully colored,  perfectly shaped, smiling gently at me.  Of course, I did what any red-blooded American artist would do when faced with a subject like that.  I planned a painting, a series of paintings, a lifetime of paintings! It would be my Red Tulip Period.  Of course, I could not expect one little flower to last through so many paintings,  so I did what every red blooded American artist of the 21st century would do - I reached for my digital camera!  Don't you just love digitals?  I shot close-ups, closer-ups, macro close-ups, not-so-close-ups, in this light and that.  Some were good, some awful, but that is the beauty of modern technology.  Take as many shots as  you like and throw away the duds.  No money wasted on the film.

Of course this one had to be in pastel,  nothing else could have captured the joy of that moment.  The joy I had in creating this painting is drawing me back to pastel, which has always been my first love, even though other mediums may be more impressive and easier to ship. Oils and acrylics are fun and have their own special qualities, but I had been really missing the expressiveness and directness of pastel.  It is time to return to my first love in art, at least for a while. It is amazing how a chance encounter with one humble little flower has restored my vision, my passion and my joy.  Of course, that mountain of worry still looms, but I can trust the Creator of my red tulip to take care of that too. 


This pastel has been painted on Wallis Professional Pastel Paper, it comes mounted on foam core board and matted to a standard size so that it can be framed easily, but the frame is not included. It will be listed on Art Helping Animals and Daily Painters, and Chisholm Trail Art next week, Contact me for more information:  dellartist@yahoo.com