Standard Measure

“18According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay,

Fury to His adversaries,

Recompense to His enemies;

The coastlands He will fully repay.

19So shall they fear

The name of the Lord from the west,

And His glory from the rising of the sun;

When the enemy comes in like a flood,

The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.

20“The Redeemer will come to Zion,

And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,”

Says the Lord.”

Isaiah 59:18-20

So I have been away from Arches water for a while and am just now reminded why they are industry standard and that none can rival their quality. Strong colors even after drying, smooth edges, beautiful hard edges and no fuzz or blur even after 5 layers. The colors from the first layers are beautiful transparent as you build up the layers. I guess that's why I have heard some people call this the Rolls Royce of watercolor paper. It's just what you compare everything else against. So in a similar way Jesus is our standard, we didn't chose him, God gave him to us as a standard so we know what to measure everything against. And suddenly the playing field of moral greys disappear because we finally have a standard of good and everything else to measure up against Jesus to test and see if it is good or if it is unrighteous. - EMH

Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere

So in no particular order a poem by Warshan Shire and paintings that have had an impact on me. This is not an exhaustive list, nor are they my favorite paintings or the ones that strongly influence my art or mindscape, it's just the ones the Holy Spirit brought to my mind and emphasized over others.

Warshan Shire: what they did yesterday afternoon

they set my aunts house on fire
i cried the way women on tv do
folding at the middle
like a five pound note.
i called the boy who used to love me
trying to ‘okay’ my voice
i said hello
he said warsan, what’s wrong, what’s happened?

i’ve been praying,
and these are what my prayers look like;
dear god
i come from two countries
one is thirsty
the other is on fire
both need water.

later that night
i held an atlas in my lap
ran my fingers across the whole world
and whispered
where does it hurt?

it answered
everywhere
everywhere
everywhere.”

Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918) was poor, talented and needed a breakthrough when he painted this self portrait. When I encountered this painting entering into my thirties, I was none of the above. But the man's frustration struck a cord inside of me.

Actually my favorite by Honoré Daumier (1808-1870) is the one with the despairing ladies walking out of an art gallery full of Venuses and men leering on Venuses, saying something like “always the same every year, but no woman looks like that”. But this man makes me laugh.

I could rave all year about the beauty of Joseph Tapiró Y Baró( 1836-1913). But the man's work speaks for his utmost love and respect for humans.

I did not know that Illya Repin (1844-1930) was trying to express an encounter of love with this one. But as a teenager this one was my PC wallpaper for the longest time, while I languished through crushes and the pains of leaving girlhood behind.

Heather Ihn Martin (1983-) is a contemporary oil and watercolor fine art artist. Her way of describing light is not how I see it visually, but actually how my mind stores the memories of day and sunlight.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917) was never my thing until suddenly last year he was. I bothered reading about his subjects and realized that the guy had a heart for the women and girls he drew, and that he actually had an opinion about the prostitution that took place in the space where higher society and art meet.

Shannon Reynolds is a contemporary artist and is still living. There is a warmth and personality to her portrait paintings of animals that strikes me as so tender towards her subjects.

So talented and yet so strange. When James Gurney (1958-) featured William FraserFraser (1856-1921) I had a breakthrough, because the guy was weird in his lifetime, his wife left him because she got enough of his weirdness and that must take guts after sticking with him through 5 kids. And his end was just as wonderfully weird, but I do get the impression that the man did what he wanted through it all. Paint to his hearts desire and vision, perfecting his craft and honing in in the subject of his love. And he stuck with it even when it was not financially viable, and his artistic output was also very very low. But the guy just did it his way and he died not knowing that one day he would be my hero. Really I have always been disappointed at my low output and general disinterest in finishing paintings in a traditional sense. Like Edgar Degas, I see the sketch as the be all end all. And it can take me years to begin and finish something. But reading about this guy has made me accept my slow output and just enjoy the process Annnd the output.

Gustave Coubert (1819-1877) is a true hero, and I do believe realism is what it is in painting today because he dared wage war against the artistic establishment of his day, and do so with talent and style. This one though is one of the more romantic of his paintings, and I like the one with the stone breaker, and the one with the funural much much better. But for some reason it is this particular painting that haunts me again and again. Maybe is the extravaganza of the artist's pose and the quiet reference of the patron, the true expression of how most artist feel at creating something. Birthing something. Bringing into existence what the audience can't conceive.

I cry when I look at Paul Cézanne's(1839-1906) later watercolor works in a way I don't cry for anything else in life. I never appreciated how he built a career deconstructing the canvas and the idea of depicting a 3 dimensional reality on a 2 dimensional surface. But then last year I was going through a growth spurt and revisited his works, and I looked and admired the paintings. Then I saw the watercolor, courtesy of James Gurney again I think. And I cried and still cry because something inside me resonate with melody, when I look at the mastery of the craft. To cut away all the noise, all the details, all the illusion and yet still create a comprehensive believable depiction of a landscape, trees, sunlight. I tear up when I look at the watercolors. Which just goes to show that we all have our sweet spot, and I should stop making fun of other artist who have artgasms at, let say Van Gogh. I don't get it, but maybe they won't get my jam.

Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) seems to have suffered under his commercial success with his bouquet themed paintings. Like John Singer Sargent he got real tired of doing what paid his bills. Really tired apparently. And that is an honesty I appreciate, because has made me aware that some products of mastery are a result of occupational necessity.

Oh to see the dawn

Oh, to see the dawn [The power of the cross] : Stuart Townend

COLOSSIANS 1: 18 ·  CORINTHIANS (2) 5: 21 ·  ISAIAH 53: 5 ·  ISAIAH 55: 11-12 ·  JOHN 19: 30 ·  LUKE 24: 7 ·  MATTHEW 27: 45 ·  MATTHEW 27: 51-52

Oh, to see the dawn

Of the darkest day:

Christ on the road to Calvary.

Tried by sinful men,

Torn and beaten, then

Nailed to a cross of wood.

This, the power of the cross:

Christ became sin for us,

Took the blame, bore the wrath:

We stand forgiven at the cross.

Oh, to see the pain

Written on Your face

Bearing the awesome weight of sin;

Every bitter thought,

Every evil deed

Crowning Your bloodstained brow.

This, the power of the cross:

Christ became sin for us,

Took the blame, bore the wrath:

We stand forgiven at the cross.

Now the daylight flees,

Now the ground beneath

Quakes as its Maker bows His head.

Curtain torn in two,

Dead are raised to life;

‘Finished!’ the victory cry.

This, the power of the cross:

Christ became sin for us,

Took the blame, bore the wrath:

We stand forgiven at the cross.

Oh, to see my name

Written in the wounds,

For through Your suffering I am free.

Death is crushed to death,

Life is mine to live,

Won through Your selfless love.

This, the power of the cross:

Son of God, slain for us.

What a love! What a cost!

We stand forgiven at the cross.

So I was watching a teaching and admiring the way the speaker's face just reflected light so wonderfully off the forms of his sunburnt skin. Yellow greenish highlights on the forehead encapsulated by burnt orange and reddish hues, bluish highlights on the brow of the nose and the arch, and a bluish greenish shad eof highlights on the upper cheeks, so I got the urge to paint. But I stopped myself several times because maybe it was just the Holy Spirit moving inside of me, it's difficult for me to tell the difference until I put pen or brush to paper and my whole self goes “nah”.

But finally an image of this half finished painting came to mind as a low key not so energy consuming painting session, and I thought yeeeeaah that one I rage quit because it was so ugly so any small splatters of highlights to contour a face will be an upgrade.

And painting on it went so smoothly that another thought came to my mind, why don't everybody paint, painting is awesome, truly it is the highest of the visual arts. But then I looked over the sketch again and remembered that I began on this 6-8 if not more months ago, and I immediately quit in a fit of pure artistic rage and nearly suffocated myself in the following meltdown that nothing about those two heads looked anything like what I had in mind. Even though as usual, what I have in my mind is more of an emotion, a sort of vague feeling of “warmth, yellow, safe, sharp” rather than a clear picture of what the faces ought to look like.

And now that I got 2/3 done on the right head, I am pleased to do a 180 and just be happy that I got some painting done, and enjoy the fact that God and scripture comes first in my life. When you put God first, He has a way of freeing you from the tyranny of mundane things and put things in the right order in your life.

““Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Matthew 6:31-34

- EMH

May the peoples praise you

You have called us out of darkest night

Into Your glorious light

That we may sing the wonders of

The risen Christ

May our every breath retell the grace

That broke into our strife

With boundless love and deepest joy

With endless life

Chorus:

May the peoples praise You

Let the nations be glad

All Your blessing comes

That we may praise

May praise the Name of Jesus

All the earth is Yours and all within

Each harvest is Your own

And from Your hand we give to You

To make Christ known




May the seeds of mercy grow in us

For those who have not heard

May songs of praise build lives of grace

To spread Your Word

CHORUS

This our holy privilege to declare

Your praises and Your name

To every nation, tribe and tongue,

Your church proclaims

CHORUS

Holy, holy is the Lord Almighty

Worthy, worthy is the Lamb Who was slain

Holy, holy is the Lord Almighty

All creation praise Your glorious Name

CHORUS

Stuart Townsend: May the peoples praise youCALL TO WORSHIP ·  CHRISTIAN LIFE

PETER (1) 2:9 ·  REVELATION 4: 8 ·  REVELATION 5:1

https://www.stuarttownend.co.uk/song/may-the-peoples-praise-you/

Story of my life, I want to draw, ideas are flooding my mind, studies are needed and yet….God is merciful and this one He gives me strength and focus to do small studies here and there. So let me see where this idea of an elderly cheerleader/cowgirl hyping up the peoples will turn out. - EMH

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.””

Romans 1: 16-17

There is a sight to behold that is too wonderful to me. 

There are the mountains and the calm sea line. 

By the lake I saw water ripple around the birds, rocking gently on its surface.

Out of the window there is the moody evenness of the gray sky. 

In the town square there are the booths of those people who are desperate to sell merchandise. 

They unveil their white toothed smiles at passersby.

On a foggy morning my heart ached and I went to search out the glory of the Creation.

And then there is You. Far more than I could ever wish for or deserve. Yet you came to me.

-EMH

“But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

1 corinthians 14:31- 1 corinthians 13

I drew them with gentle cords, With bands of love

““When Israel was a child, I loved him,

And out of Egypt I called My son.

As they called them,

So they went from them;

They sacrificed to the Baals,

And burned incense to carved images.

“I taught Ephraim to walk,

Taking them by their arms;

But they did not know that I healed them.

I drew them with gentle cords,

With bands of love,

And I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck.

I stooped and fed them.”

Hosea 11:1-4

With the conviction of a river meandering through the land

And the steadfastness of the ground that cradles the river flow

That is how I am in relation to you.

I stand in awe of you LORD God of Abraham.

-EMH

I have loved you with an everlasting love

“The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying:

“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;

Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”

Jeremiah 31:3

In the torrents of rain that soak me to the bone and drench my very being

In the terror of the raging sea which pulls me into its unsearchable depths

In the scorching rays of the desert sun that bleeds new colors into my skin

In the oppressive heat of the jungle where moist air clogs every pore of my skin

In the despairing skies of northern pastures where the howling wind offers me solace

In the trails of icy glaciers where the touch of winter and long nights leave me bereft

In the secret place of stillness where Your Spirit makes Your Name known to me 

I taste and see that the LORD is good. 

-EMH

This one is too old as well. I guess I was waiting around for divine inspiration to make it even wordier!?! But I guess this must be its fullness.

As many as the Lord our God will call

“For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

Acts 2:39

You’re old brother Bear, and only YHWH’s left to care

Get it right sister Fox, who cares if you’re unorthodox

Taste and see aunt Lioness, truly YHWH has plenty left to bless

Roam free uncle Hound, He has freed you to a life unbound

Lay down your life grandma Gull, the murmur of the envious is such a sinful lull

So I had big plans with this one, it has been laying around for years. But I the words to continue it have dried up. Maybe one day I will also make the small illustrations that belong to it. God willing.

-EMH