As one painting journey ends, another  begins.

I am struck with the gift of all the online opportunities to pray for this earth of ours through the blessings of art.

I spent the month of January totally immersed in Painting the Feminine with Connie Hozvicka. I will post more about that in the near future because depths of wisdom and confusion were revealed and it’s worth sorting out in this written form.

But today, I want to babble over the joy of applying both acrylic and oil pastel to simple pages in a journal. I’ve decided to leap into another offering of Connie’s. This one Prayer with a Paintbrush. Since I’d already committed to painting once a month inspired by my prayers for the health of wild salmon, this challenge fits right in. The remaining 11 months of this year will be inspired by Connie’s mid month theme and musings sent to our email boxes on the 14^th of each month. I invite you to join me in this journey because it promises to be a blessing on many levels.

February’s theme not surprisingly is love – Healing Heart –

My morning walk had me ooooohing and ahhhhhhing over the radiant beauty of chartreuse mossy tree trunks being backlit by the rising sun- before the next deluge began an hour later – which made the beauty even more fabulous. Our local rain forest patch is truly a rainforest right now – mud and puddles all over the trail, small creeks overflowing and rushing to their culverts, the pond almost rising back up to its fullness, buds on branches swollen with new life and mini-ponds popping up all over the forest floor where they haven’t been seen at all for the 18 months I’ve lived here. The ducks are happily splashing!

I thought I’d start painting my love for the glorious green wonders of burgeoning forest life. In acrylic paint, here’s what I began. I knew this intuitive painting process would change things quickly, but I hadn’t a clue how monumental the change would be.  I decided to snap a quick picture at this stage in the painting process. I turned the journal on its side to catch the light better. As I peered through the camera’s viewfinder, I suddenly realized a face was staring back at me. Oh my god there’s a face right smack dab in the middle of the tree trunk.

That’s me…the wild forest woman…that’s the me I love, the me that wants to find her way into greater visibility, the me that calls for ever more courage to speak, to stand for what I know is important.

So I turned the journal on its side and worked on the face.

Tiring of paint, I knew it was time for oil pastel. Here’s what emerged.

I never tire of the surprises of painting and give thanks for this wild woman who arrived with no invitation. She inspires me to be even more true to my heart’s passionate purpose.

Thank YOU!