In September 2020, two friends of mine from church got married. It was a small event outside in the churches prayer garden since most places were still not allowing large gatherings at this time. The wedding took place just before the sun was setting that day, which made for a beautiful wedding. A few months later, while I was scrolling through Facebook, I noticed she had posted wedding pictures and came across the image below.
After looking at the image for a few moments. I decided I wanted to paint it for them as a wedding/anniversary present and it would be a surprise. My goal was to have it painted by September 2021 so I could give it to them. Unfortunately, due to life situations, including surgery, I was unable to reach that goal.
September 2022 became my new goal and I was determined to meet it. I started end of july/beginning of August and planned out exactly when I would work on this piece. I’ve found that setting a deadline for myself as well as check points for a piece really does help me reach my goal. If I don’t then the piece may not get done.
So I went to Create one Wednesday night and got to work. First thing was to take the photo and sketch it out on the canvas. I do this so I have a road map of sorts to follow while I paint. I don’t always do this however. Some of my other pieces I have just painted without sketching but for this piece to be the way I wanted it, I needed to sketch it out first. Then I started painting the sky. When painting I always work from the background to the foreground.
Once the sky was dry, I worked on the back trees. The original image has a thick tree line. In order to capture that, I would need to do two layers of trees. Especially since there are 2 different types of trees. While the darker trees dried, I worked on the sidewalk. It was here that I realized I did not sketch the point of view correctly. My sketch is slightly lower than it should be, which is why the resulting look was a baseball field. I nearly gave up at this point. I really thought I had messed it up and couldn’t recover. While the sidewalk dried and I debated on giving up, I painted the thinner upfront trees.
I kept going as the paint dried. I still didn’t like the piece very much because of the side walk. I added the leaves, a larger tree, the sun and the awning and fountain.
I finally started liking this piece once I started working on the foreground. I added the cross, bench, guitar and plate and cup. I also changed the color of the side walk so it didn’t look so baseball field is. For the bushes in the front, it took my 3 shades of green and 3 layers to fill them in completely. Parts 1-3 were done on the same day. Part for was done a few weeks later, a week before my deadline. I gave the piece to my friends and they loved it, despite my fears of it being terrible.
Throughout this piece I have realized that I am my own worsted critic and that other people see the beauty in pieces that I can only see the mistakes. I think that’s how God is with us. He sees our beauty for who we are because of Christ’s death and resurrection. We harp on our mistakes and can’t forgive ourselves when God has already forgiven us.
He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.
Psalm 103:12
Psalms 103:12 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.103.12.NLT
And because He has forgiven us, we are to forgive others, including ourselves. We can not hold onto what God has already forgiven and no longer remembers.
Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.
Ephesians 4:32 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/eph.4.32.NLT
We live in such an angry world now where everyone is dealing with something that no one knows about. When you can be anything in this world, choose to be kind, tender hearted and forgive others.
I pray you forgive yourself and those who have wronged out. I pray that if you don’t know Christ, that God would out someone on your path who can introduce you to Him.
Until then, God Bless.