How did the painting “The Skies Proclaim His Handiwork” came about? And how did it get its name?
Well, the painting was by accident, I suppose you could say, but the name was chosen for a purpose. As I develop the courage to embrace who I am as an artist, I keep finding that my purpose is to share the beauty of God’s creation.
Psalm 19:1 says the skies proclaim God’s handiwork, and if you’ve ever been on a lake at sunset before, this is sure to be true!
My original intention when putting the first brush strokes on this 16×20 blank canvas was to just “use up the paint on my palette”, or so I thought. I was in the midst of projects right before Christmas and knew it would be way too long of a break to expect my paint to still be wet when I came back to it. I grabbed my canvas and hurriedly brushed on the red, brown, blue, white, and green where it seemed the most logical. Then I ended up with more leftover paint from a different project, so I now had more green and yellow. Of course, my initial response was a sunset and reflection in the water.
When I finally got back to it about 2 weeks later, the hurried strokes still appealed to me as if they were telling a story of their own. I was still short on time and wanted to keep that story going, so over the course of two one- or two-hour sessions, I finished it up.
There’s always part of me that’s sad to see some aspects of the underpainting get covered up (kind of like forgetting part of a story). For this one, I would have to say it’s the original trees compared to the final trees. I liked how their colors were more unique and they seemed to have more character or “realness” compared to the final trees.
This painting is listed for sale at WeeWhistlepig.