This Bright Morning - and More on the Anniversary Surprise

This Bright Morning

Oil on canvas, 10x10

sold

My painting in the landscape

My sky photo

A friend and I, realizing we are both sort of fascinated with the sky, set off in March on a project to take a photo of the sky every day and send them to each other. The morning sky was so gorgeous on Thursday that after I took my photo, I set up my easel and painted the dawn.

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I PAINT BECAUSE I love to paint. Of all the possible things I could do with my life, painting makes me happiest. It makes me happier than I ever thought possible. When I paint, I am released from all worry, from all fear, from all boundaries. Painting, I feel pure joy. I believe that God is in all of us, and for me, painting comes from the place in me where God lives.

Selling paintings is not why I paint. Selling paintings is what I do to keep painting, to make it possible to paint and pay the bills. Painting is not a means to an end, but is an end in and of itself. Selling, while important, is tangential to the act of painting itself.

The other day, Joe Skelly, my prosperity coach, suggested that when someone buys a painting, currency stands in for love. I love what I am doing and I love my paintings. When a buyer does, nine times out of 10, Joe said, he or she can't really express that love - but the money stands in for it.

I see his point, and I think that some of the time, he's right. But not all of the time.

In doing the shows, I've met some of the best friends I've ever had. And this surprised me, I admit! I wanted my paintings to touch people. I hoped that when people looked at my paintings, they would feel what I felt when I painted them. I never thought about these feelings passing the paintings and coloring the relationships. But they do.

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IN MY MOST recent post, I mentioned a man who had commissioned a sunflower painting for his wife for their anniversary. Here's a little addendum to that story.

Here's the painting in their
living room.

The husband came into my tent at the show in Leesburg, where we'd agreed the surprise would take place, and we smiled at each other and shook hands. His wife looked in to my tent and then, to my dismay, walked past my tent to the next one. He went out and got her, and they came in and the events unfolded.

In an email today, he said that on the way home, he'd asked his wife why she'd gone right by my tent.

"I couldn't bear it again," she told him, "looking at her work and not coming home with a piece."

This is sort of IT in a nutshell - not that someone walks away because they can't have a piece, but that the paintings hit them hard enough to touch them in their souls, as they touch me in mine.

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COACH SKELLY came up here for our session the other day, and afterwards, we went out and painted. This was his first effort, and he did a great job. I really like his painting, and truly admire his bravery. No quibbles or hesitations on his part - he just jumped right in!

Joe has helped me enormously in terms of earning and learning. You can have a free introductory session with him to see if he could help you. Call or text him at 757-675-6569.

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NEXT SATURDAY, the 21st, Ronet Noe and I will be painting on the sidewalk in front of Center Framing and Art, 56 LaSalle Road, West Hartford Center, CT.

Ronet is a wonderful painter and a good friend, and Lori, who owns the frame shop and gallery is an amazing woman and also a good friend. We always have fun when we do this - and part of the fun is meeting people and talking to them.

So if you are in the area, please come visit. You can watch us paint, check out the paintings in the gallery, and lighten up your Saturday for a while!

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Dog of the Day

It's a baby Scotty! 

Want your pet to be featured as the Dog of the Day? Send a jpg to me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com