A little art...

Before I turned 30, I had not painted anything since preschool. When I was in middle school and only had one Fine Arts elective I could choose, I was encouraged to take Drama. Shocking, I know. High School was the same, though Volleyball took two of my courses and Theater never fit my schedule, so I took Photography.

Somewhere along the way I assumed I must not be able to draw or do anything artistic. I remember regularly saying something like, "I don't even know how to drawn a stick man right..." At some point, I stopped trying. Or if I did make some feeble attempt at doodling, I gave up quickly because it wasn't "perfect".

Then I had kids. And they would ask me to sit and draw with them. And I read a book, Drawing With Children by Mona Brooks. As my kids started getting older and I started to fall in love with the Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling, sketching and painting to capture the world around us is becoming more and more "what we do" as a family.

I don't always have time to do sketches myself, but the kids have assignments every day to sketch and quickly color and label a bird they have seen or other wildlife we have encountered on hikes or in our backyard. When we camp, however, we have much more time, so with few dishes and no laundry or vacuuming to distract me, I sketch and paint things we have seen on that trip.

I remember a friend once telling me, as we talked about knitting, how wonderful it is to know that when we are creating something we are displaying an attribute of God. I had never thought of it before, but as Naomi pointed out that in as much as we are made in God's image and He is the Creator, so shall we create! I never looked at kid art the same way, or mine. When I draw or paint now, especially nature, I am reminded of the masterful touch of God's creative hand in nature and how, no matter how hard I try, I can but barely capture the most simple of its display. But one thing I do is, as I try to copy the handiwork of God, I marvel and give glory to the Lord and His mighty hand in the amazing Creation we are blessed to live in.

Last weekend we went to Elliott's parent's cabin outside of Fredricksburg, 300 acres of God's wonderful Texas Hill Country beauty. On the ride to the cabin I saw a Loggerhead Shrike fly up from hunting lizards to land on a fence. Then, down at the creek at dusk, we heard a chorus of tiny frogs and video taped one croaking like crazy, no bigger than a dime. This weekend we are camping at Bastrop State Park and I spent about thirty minutes after breakfast following this little flock of about six Carolina Chickadees flitting between some trees by our RV. Finally two rested in a little opening in the tree so I could notice the field markings and identify them accurately. Anyhow, that is what I have been painting. I am part-way done with a picture of a Tufted Titmouse I saw on a feeder at the park host's site.

Enjoy!