I have heard it said that paintings are an imprint of the artist’s soul. Each day that I spend marrying pigment to brush on canvas or panel gives credence to this view. It almost feels like a moving and active meditation, a time for the soul’s communion with its experience of reality, translated thoughtfully onto the painting. Long and tedious work on challenge areas eventually reward me with unexpected breakthroughs, preceded by my own heart racing as I paint angles and values with bated breath, to visibly convincing positions. At last, her foot appears mid-stride. This was my most recent and significant breakthrough.

Although I am convinced that painting is my vocation in life, I am grateful for the day job that I enjoy very much. It keeps me balanced and supports my art. It allows me to aspire towards paintings that represent an inner eternal flame for beauty, truth and meaning beyond the tangible and the daily routine. My hope is for others to view these works, these so-called imprints, and to derive joy and substance from what I have seen and felt in life, so far. I agree that art happens as the work unfolds from within the artist and just as meaningfully, art happens when the viewer is engaged and the work evokes an awareness for the substantial in his life. I seek to bring joy this way.

Each work is a gift from a heart that burns within; from a heart filled with gratitude for the gift that it can never fully deserve but can only render in faith, for others.

“Five loaves and two fish”.  To me, these five words are another way of saying, show up for your life and give it your best shot.  We often keep our dreams and intentions on hold while we wait for what we believe are sure signs of success in our endeavors. Sometimes, the signs appear like a writing on the wall. Sometimes, we do not recognize the signs and so we don’t give our dreams a shot at becoming reality. What has worked for me, so far, is to give whatever I have,  e.g. “five loaves and two fish”, towards my aspirations and unfailingly, life has multiplied my offering, sometimes way beyond my own imaginings.

I am now working on a painting with walking figures in the foreground and my greatest challenge by far is how to get my subjects to emit the striding stance that they have in reality.  Who knew that painting walking feet would be so difficult?

Three hours of scumbling, smudging and smoothing and I still can’t get my angles in the right perspective.  Sigh. Her feet will have to wait another day, I tell myself, as I  wash my paintbrush clean and think of my life’s other currencies, e.g. work deadlines and household chores.  Still, I think  about all my hard-won triumphs on canvas and I resolve to be earnest in my daily offering of “five loaves and two fish” and give thanks that I have something to offer.  Tomorrow, I will show up for my life as I have today. I will come closer to painting her feet as accurately as I see it, e.g. walking mid-stride on cobbled streets on market day.  This work will come to fruition and will give joy to its viewer.  This work will cause a multiplication in my daily offering.  When this painting is finished, my life will gain far more than my own imaginings when the work began as a mere intention, when it significance was a mere contemplation.  My heart shall be content and will  once again rejoice for the baskets of blessings left over from the offering of five loaves and two fish.