The Mystery of Marriage

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  I wonder what the relevance of the Biblical template of marriage is in these times. As I write I am aware of failed marriages and gay marriages, and I do not doubt that we have all known pain, and that we have all found love, somewhere. I am inspired by this Biblical verse in Ephesians 5:29-32 "For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church." And I also am inspired by Galatians 3:28 which says that in Christ there is neither male nor female, among other things. Marriage is a mystery, seems to be the message for me. I guess that the mystery of marriage is in how it works at all! I loved being single over 20 years ago, but it had to come to an end because of its own challenges. Once the decisio...
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Consider the Birds

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I was overwhelmed today and did not feel like painting, because there was just so much I wanted to do, and so much more I have to learn. Coupled with this is the fear of failure, and of making mistakes. But, like Steve Mitchell on the Mind of Watercolour says, it is important to overcome this fear of failure, and forge ahead with your painting, because, at the very least, you will come away with having learned something!

But woudn't it be so much better if you could "fix" the mistakes that you make?

And so, on this balmy winter morning in Melbourne, I looked at my paintings and saw a problem with my painting of two galahs. The above picture is the "after", where I attempted to cover this up. Below is the "before" painting. As you can see, the bird on the left does not look right on my first attempt.


So, with the help of YouTube techniques of how to blend watercolour paint wet on dry, I managed to improve my painting! 

Life's a bit like that too, wouldn't you say? One thing is for sure - making mistakes is unavoidable for all of us. But what this exercise has taught me, is the art of salvaging (also known as damage control!)

I love the colours of the beautiful Australian galah, (the common name for the pink and grey cockatoo). The beauty of Nature is all around us, and even in a hostile Universe, Life finds a way to flourish! That Life is in each of us, so never give up! Each of us is a unique Miracle! 

While we all have many failures, I have found that by applying the teachings of Jesus for myself, and rediscovering His presence in my life, I have grown to be more of the person I hoped to be. 

The illustration above has a few words from a Bible passage from Matthew 6:26 -

Consider the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Those are the words of Jesus when he was on this planet. I like how they speak to me, and point my gaze upwards, beyond the birds, to a loving heavenly Father. My faith is that He exists, despite all the darkness I see around me, and that He does not make mistakes.

I used Daniel Smith's Opera Pink and Buff Titanium, M. Graham Sepia and Payne's Gray. I used size 4, 2 and 0 round Princeton Neptune brushes on Arches cold-pressed paper 300 gsm. I "studied" some pictures of galahs on the internet, and sketched them roughly in my drawing pad, before tracing them with a light box onto the watercolour paper, and then filling in the paint.

I will continue to work on this painting this weekend. What will you be doing?

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