You may have noticed I paint a lot of landscapes with reflections. That’s because of how much fun it is to do, especially when it actually looks like it is a reflection when it’s done :)

My most recent landscape painting I call “Joyful Reflections”.

My goal was to paint a scene that evokes feelings of joyfulness, so I chose warm colors to add to the trees and shrubs, since they are known to cause the viewer to have happy feelings float to the surface. It is also fun to change up colors you’d expect to see in a landscape, and they provide a nice contrast to all of the cooler greens and blues.

For the image being reflected, I wanted to add more detail to help it stand apart from the reflection.

So I added some scribbles and stipplings to give definition to some trees. That was an exciting kind of scary thing to do because I didn’t want to ruin the painting and you can’t undo a micron pen!

But I had no intention of it being perfect. Loose, free and fun is what I was going for! Without that, where is the joy?

Once I had the main picture done with the background detailed and the girl and kayak in place, all the focus was to the right of the painting. I needed something to balance out the left side.

I love Claude Monet’s Water Lily Pond painting. so I thought I’d try to add some lily pads and water flowers to the surface of the water. .

I used gouache and my favorite iridescent sparkly watercolor to help the pads and flowers to stand out from the reflection.

How fun is that? These photos don’t really capture the effect as well as viewing it in person, but the lily pads are quite fun!

Don’t you want to play hopscotch on them to get to the dry land?

The final piece achieves the goal of being joyfully magical!

It has some things I wish I could change, like the purple tree from being in dead center of the painting, but this painting was never about being perfect, it was about having fun, experimenting, and painting some joy.

When we get hung up on perfection, creativity runs right out the door. This paintings very beginnings were born out of a technique that eliminates a lot of control. By using it, you make random leaf-like patterns by pressing crumpled saran wrap into wet watercolor and wait for it to dry. Doing this left behind the neat textured background that I used to shape the trees and bushes.

The saran wrap technique leaves a lot up to chance. It does not create a perfect mirror image from the top half to the bottom. The painting started out perfectly imperfect! I worked from that first layer of playing with textures to come to this final painting.

The imperfections that result are born out of joyful creativity, experimenting, and having fun playing with new techniques.

Sometimes you just need to let go of “just right” to jump into the relaxing, fun flow of the art.

I would love to hear from you! Please comment below, or by email (merri@artsandblessings.com) or for quicker interaction with me as well as with other readers, post your comment on my facebook page! I can’t wait to hear from you!

Mermaid Pond

Look closely! (click to enlarge) The ducks are lined up on the edge of the pond by the dock. They look like they are ready for a swim meet!

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Serenity Pond Original Watercolor Painting

When I saw a picture of a pond like the one above, I loved it, I thought it was so beautiful and I longed to go there.

But it was missing something… no one was there to enjoy it. Not a bird, not a boat and no mermaids—believe it or not! Nothing at all to soak in all the serenity which is calmly waiting to be enjoyed. So in my version of the picture, I added some mallards and sent them off by two’s to have adventures together (the buddy system is still important!).

At the end of our street, there is a place called “Mermaid Pond”. Well, at least that is what we call it. Many years ago, our neighbors created the pond at the bottom of the hill in their yard. It is a pretty good size pond—big enough to act as a neighborhood ice skating rink. They also added ducks and geese to the pond, so it is a lot of fun to sit on the small bench and watch them play. Sometimes there is a spash with no obvious explanation so clearly, it is caused by mermaids being almost caught as they ducked back down under the waters surface!

There is a stretch of a wooded swampy area off to the right of the pond, and it is filled to capacity (or so it sounds) with bullfrogs, tree frogs and toads, and various other amphibious creatures. And ticks (and mosquitos), so I’ve never personally explored that mysterious and mucky area.

Walking on the side of the road by that stretch, with all those woodsy sounds and the occasional splash and quack, makes it seem like we’re entering a secret getaway spot.

The sounds of nature can transport you to another place, if you let it. They can take you away to savor the serenity, to soak in the creation, to observe the reflections in the pond, to watch the trees eagerly wave with the wind, and to capture each moment we have, each one a gift to marinate in the joys of Gods imagination and creativity!

Each minute can be celebrated because that minute is once-in-a-lifetime event! Each one is for us to have and enjoy to the fullest as it comes.

So why not take the time to use our gift of imagination to dream and ponder a peaceful, serene world where the mermaids joyfully splash just out of sight? Where trees conduct the chorus of the melodic voices belonging to frogs and ducks, geese and toads?

I wonder what the lyrics to their song would be?

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I would love to hear from you! Please comment below, or by email (merri@artsandblessings.com) or for quicker interaction with me as well as with other readers, post your comment on my facebook page! I can’t wait to hear from you!

“. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”

— Psalm 19:1

We recently had the privilege of seeing the Aurora Borealis! I have always wanted to see the northern lights, but never expected to actually get the chance!

You may remember from this last winter that I had watercolor painted a series of pictures (see photos below, or click here to see the options in the store) of the northern lights. Those pictures don’t even come close to the level of amazing that the skies God painted a few weeks ago! I am still in awe of having been able to witness it!

To be outside in the darkness and yet be surrounded by the most glorious display of God’s handiwork and His creativity—it reminded me of a baptism of sorts. Instead of being immersed in water, I was immersed in the colors and light and love that God pours out on us.

In the photo’s I took with my phone it looks like we saw what the picture revealed, but that isn’t the case. I couldn’t see the northern lights at all to begin with but my phone could. Once I knew they were there, I could faintly see them with my eyes.

It made me wonder how often I may have been wrapped in that light; how often there is an incredible sight to behold without knowing it, even as it envelops me! I wanted to look back at my photos and see if the fluorescent colors show up when I didn’t expect it, but you know what? I just don’t think of taking a photo of darkness very often.

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”

— Psalm 8:3-4

We may only get to see the Aurora Borealis once or twice in our life-time, but God paints the skies for us in so many ways. Each one a testament to his love that he would share with us. An example of a little of His beauty and His creativity! I can not wait to see what Heaven’s skies will look like! I am sure our earthly bodies can’t bear the intensity of light, beauty, and vibrant colors that He has prepared for us!

The song “Overwhelmed” by Big Daddy Weave has always reminded me of the overwhelming beauty of all He created, and especially of the northern lights. If you haven’t heard that song before, hop on over to YouTube to have a listen. You will not be disappointed! (But you may be Overwhelmed! :)

Here are some of my favorite watercolor painted skies:

“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

— Romans 1:20

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I would love to hear from you! Please comment below, or by email (merri@artsandblessings.com) or for quicker interaction with me as well as with other readers, post your comment on my facebook page! I can’t wait to hear from you!

Here are some photos of the Northern Lights sky series I painted this past Fall:

Sunrise At Mid-Tide

“The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.”

— Proverbs 21:1 ESV

I will never forget my first watercolor class, learning and watching how the watercolor paint will stay on the wet parts of the paper. By using just water on a brush, you can paint a shape and then if you put the paint on the brush and lightly touch the section of paper that is wet, the magic happens. You can watch the water just travel where you paved the way for it to go.   You can add a different color to the same wet area and watch the colors collide, swirl and fade into each other. It’s beautiful!

It is also a pretty amazing illustration of Proverbs 21:1 “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD, he turns it wherever he will”

It is shockingly easy to turn the watercolor on the page, you can control where it flows with little effort.  But trying to turn the heart of a stubborn old king? Not so much.  At least for me. But for God it is just that easy.

When my oldest son was 3 years old, he was going into a wonderful special purpose program for kids with autism.  He needed full time preschool, but the “Powers That Be” (or the king) only allowed him to have half days.

We advocated as best we could. We had meeting after meeting. We gathered documentation and we had all the teachers in the school, and all the therapists, all in agreement that he needed full time school.

But the director-king of Child Development Services said he can’t have full time school because the preschool he was in did not offer the preferred style of teaching kids with autism—which was exactly why we wanted that school!  He needed to learn by playing and having fun. By having the teachers enter into his world so that they could earn his interest and trust, and bring him into our world.  He didn’t learn by sitting at a desk doing drills and rote memorizations.   He hated that, cried at that and did not learn anything from that style of teaching.  He was thriving in this school and we didn’t want him to go to a different one.

For months we tried, and prayed, and nearly gave up the thought that he’d be able to attend full time.

But then out of the blue, the director-king called and said after break (it was Christmas) he could go full time. We were absolutely stunned!  This person who didn’t approve of the school we all loved, changed her mind.  Just like that!  She said saw all the progress he has made there and agrees with us and was excited to tell us that he has been approved for full time preschool!

That was the hand of the LORD, holding his paintbrush and dabbing the paint onto the wet section of the kings heart, channeling it in the direction that He desired it to turn.

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I would love to hear from you! Please comment below, or by email (merri@artsandblessings.com) or for quicker interaction with me as well as with other readers, post your comment on my facebook page! I can’t wait to hear from you!