October painting: trees, field & sky

Here is a picture taken in October of last year -- the sunlight on the autumn trees, the phenomenal clouds with their rare blue-scale coloration and painted texture, and shadowed field of grey and dusky purple... it was an amazing moment: autumn glory! Enjoy!

October study: fence, field & scudding sky

People have enjoyed my PA scenes so much that I've decided to post some of my PA pictures, from time to time. I'll be doing this seasonally, so that distant friends can sense the feeling of nature, the beauty and rhythm of creation! :-)

A November van gogh

Surely God is the ultimate painter -- real or surreal, abstract or primitive, impressionistic or expressionistic: all earthly masters learn from Him... acknowledged or unacknowledged, the proof is in nature's glory! Here, late autumn trees lean out over a November stream, forming a layered painting on liquid canvas... the floating leaves add dimension and texture and the sky adds its background hue... masterpiece of the moment, undeniable clue of Creator! Enjoy!

A late autumn calling

I love it when the autumn mists come calling and evening light brushes the color-tinted hills! Every day is another moment of artistry, October to November... and then we have Advent! Perhaps it is no surprise that autumn is my favorite season and Christmas my favorite holiday, lol... Enjoy the beauty, and smile with me today!

An autumn scene

Here's an example of October scenery this year -- the colors aren't as brilliant as in some years, but the beauty is still evident... just another area on the divine palette, still opening to sun and sky in natural painting! Enjoy!

A fine October day

Today was one of those rare October days where the light and air and sun and shadow all mix together on a divine palette, creating stunning displays of color and sky... nature's glory! I was blessed with a 17 mile bike ride in this autumn glory... and here is a neat scene from my day [one of a hundred, a beauty-filled path through hardwoods and glades, hills and streams!]. Enjoy!

A railway in autumn

Autumn Pennsylvania railway -- track light red, sky grey, rails free!

Here is proof of just how far I'll go to capture artistic shots, lol. Here is a railroad crossing, looking down the tracks, track light red, sky grey, iron rails converging, flowing into the distance, sentinel trees muted brown and bare!

A table in autumn

Here the grey of an overcast autumn sky is reflected in the lake, a subdued backdrop for a rough wooden table, framed by fallen leaves, red, pink and rusty. This is a pic that has to be seen close up to be appreciated! Click to enlarge, btw. As I considered this picture in nature, rough table in autumn, purposeful still, the imagery of our divine Abba came to mind, where He spreads a table for His children, in the wilderness...

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD
Forever.

Psalm 23:5-6

Sometimes the sky just takes my breath away

Sometimes the autumn sky just takes my breath away --
How can anyone truly see, and not long for poetry?
A contradiction, for me: how anyone can look at life
And not seek Life, the Author and Perfecter of our faith?

Step by step

Rich Mullins

Sometimes the night was beautiful
Sometimes the sky was so far away
Sometimes it seemed to stoop so close
You could touch it but your heart would break...

And on this road to righteousness
Sometimes the climb can be so steep
I may falter in my steps
But never beyond Your reach!

Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
I will seek You in the morning
And I will learn to walk in Your ways
And step by step You'll lead me
And I will follow You all of my days...

Selah.

And the road goes on, ever upward, to the light!

Have you ever felt yourself to be part of a story infinitely larger than yourself? Or do you think that life is a basically random event, just what you make it through your desire and will? Or, maybe you believe in God but don't think that He cares so much about individual choices, that He doesn't have a specific will for your life...

Wherever you find yourself, I ask you a question: Is it possible that life -- life itself, I mean -- is smaller than its art? Is the transcendent beauty of a work of art less than that which created it?

Never! I say. These fleeting glimpses of beauty only imitate that which is behind it: the story-essence of life cannot be less than its illustration in a perfect picture... Such reality calls us to the beauty beyond, to be up and doing what our hands find to do, in destiny!

In the words of Longfellow,

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream! --
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem...

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

Indeed! The road goes ever upward and onward, and we can learn its beauty and trace its goal, day by day. The challenge is in waiting, in patient pursuance of the higher good...

Your destiny, your story, cannot be less than the beauty you see, the road that calls you upward! Grand beauty and divine intent! Destiny of light...!

Selah.

Autumn oak on a rainy day

Here is an October forest window: a grand old oak tree framing a glimpse into other trees: the yellow of young maple leaves and the deep green of evergreens, further in. The forest is damp with rain, wet bark on the sides of trees, and muted colors, yet true!

I'm learning to carry my camera with me, on walks or rides, and am always surprised at the new beauty that comes my way! Even on a rainy day, lol.

Autumn symphony of field and sky

I just love the way the brown autumn soybean fields contrast with the blue autumn sky, and turning leaves. It turns any combination of field and trees into a potential masterpiece -- add in the sun and sky, and the picture is complete! A great time of year!

And, the art is layered in meaning. This scene, and hundreds like it, combine divine and human elements to make the painting complete: the fruit of hand and plough, fair work and filled vocation of field and farm, meeting halfway the God who makes things grow, who gives sun and rain for life!

This picture, in all its beauty, links for me what MacDonald calls the "divine round," where humans play their part in obedience to complete a divine picture. Here, work and industry are met in divine favor, sunlight and air: whole beauty!

Autumn sunlight on hardwood trees

While getting a load of firewood, I was struck by the pattern of light and leaves, a neat perspective from inside the trees. It is a dappled pattern of light and shadows, trees and leaves, soaring up to the blue sky beyond, with its floating white clouds. A picture can't capture the actual presence, of course, but it's not bad, either! :-)

Autumn rainbow painting

I just love the interplay of light in this pic, almost watercolor hues and contrasts: lit foreground, muted blue hills and pastel sky! Look closely and you can barely see a pink strand on the very bottom of the forming rainbow. And in the center of the rainbow, the light breaking through the clouds, right still in gentle rain. [Click 2x to enlarge]

Old Brush Hill School

School days, school days
Dear old Golden Rule days
Reading and writing and 'rithmetic
All to the tune of a hickory stick!

The song still echoes on a country drive
Through Pennsylvania hills,
On a bright September day.

The voices may have faded and gone away
But the lessons still remain,
And laughter will ever stay...

An autumn reminder of refracted truth:
Lovely crafting of lives,
And flowers on the way!

Reflections on an old, one-room schoolhouse, serendipitously happened upon during a scenic country drive.