Paradise Lane

As Summer draws to a close, I wanted to post this painting from several years ago.  The view is looking down Paradise Lane (which is the actual name of the road).  The day was hot, and the rain storm in the distance was rumbling through.  This was painted in my studio instead of out on the site, where the preliminary sketch and under-painting were completed.  During this time in my life there was a transition in my working situation, and at the time things were looking uncertain.  At the same time, I was experiencing a type of personal revival in my heart with the Lord, and where there used to be drought, physically and spiritually, I could hear the "sound of abundance of rain." 

This painting is then, in a sense, a portrayal of that:  dry dusty road, dry bare clay showing through the dry grass of the field.  But the cornflowers in the foreground bring hope, that all is not withered away, that relief is just beyond the bend, where the showers are sweeping over the fields. 

This is acrylic, thinned out and used as watercolor to a degree.  Day by day I would add washes over washes, then scrub sections out, then apply new washes, then layered in the details.  So even the process speaks of water and color applied purposefully and abundantly to a dry surface so that in the end, where once there was a blank white board, now stands a beautiful painting, and an echo of a larger truth.

I gave this painting to my grandfather, who was also my Pastor for many years, who throughout life has helped me in so many ways, and he enjoys it to this day. 

"For I will pour water on him who is thirsty,
And floods on the dry ground..."  Isaiah 44:3