THE MASTER'S TOUCH
THE MASTER’S TOUCH Copyright Frances K. Van Mil
There I was, working on my third painting in the art
classes I was taking. I had found a
photo I liked of light grasses, dark brown water and rocks, with a backdrop of
trees. In my senior years, never having
developed my artistic bent, I was experimenting: can I paint rocks? Can I paint trees? Can I do reflections? I was intrigued by what looked like a phantom
bird in bright blue, just above the three rocks at the bottom right. On the left, in the brown water, were long,
blue streaks resembling bullrushes, in the same bright blue. A trick of the
camera, I thought, but I liked them: the colours were rich, and they added a
bit of fantasy, even mystery to the painting.
I was working on the sky behind the trees, and the dark blue shadows
between the trees, before doing the routine, almost boring trees at the
back. I took the same shade of blue as
the bird, lightened it to three pastel shades and began the mottled sky, then
worked in the shadow shapes.
At that
moment, Barb, our teacher came by to check on my progress. Barb is an expert. Accomplished as both a portraiture artist and
a teacher, she always knows exactly how to fix our mistakes. When I had despaired, in my first painting of
fruit in a bowl, about a huge, dark shadow and dark background lines I wished I
had omitted, she assured me that every painting needs some dark, some light,
some bright and some dull elements in it.
Calmly, she had led me to just the right red colour to finish the
background. She encouraged me that the
movement in my painting was “painterly”: high praise from a teacher who is
always honest and even blunt in her charming way. On my second painting, a
simple garden shed with snow, shadows and trees, I had been unable even to draw
the shed correctly. With her usual calm
expertise, Barb had found exactly the right angle for the artistic perspective lines
of the side of the shed which receded into the bush.
Now,
finishing the background for my painting with the blue bird, I expected only a
simple word or two before Barb moved on.
“Stop!”,
she said, imperiously. “Your painting is
finished!”
What? And then
I saw it. The dancing blue tree shadows and
warm pastel sky provided an impressionistic touch to the more realistic scene
below, tying in with the bird and rushes.
Somehow, the colours and composition worked. To know when to stop painting demanded an expert
eye. Barb then analyzed the painting,
explaining why it worked, talking of perspective, composition and lightness. No one was more amazed than I. I felt released to be the artist I want to
be, without taking years to perfect technique first. When she encouraged me, not everyone, always
to block in big shapes first, before going into detail, I knew that she
understood me as a unique artist.
We have
just such an expert in life. God made
us, loves and understands each one of us as a unique person, and has every
moment of our lives planned. He truly
knows when to interrupt our ho-hum mindset, and cause us to soar—perhaps sooner
than we think!
Prayer: Lord, help us to trust You to make us soar
like eagles in every aspect of our lives.
Thank You that nothing that You have planned for us to do or become, no
talent placed within us, will lack Your expert touch in Your perfect timing,
even if that timing is in our last years.
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