Sunday, March 18, 2007

Step Into Spring

Don’t you just love springtime? Atlanta has been experiencing a taste of spring with cold nights but gradual warming during the day. Daffodils are nodding their yellow faces in the gusty breezes, and redbud trees have just started to pop out with pink blossoms, while the Bradford pear struts her white finery like a bride waiting for her groom. The South is a magnificent place to be this time of year with bright yellow forsythia bushes as bright as the sun, however, the best is yet to come –delicate dogwood and the many varieties of azaleas. This painting is one that I did a while back, but it makes me think of my mama. She loved flowers, and always had a small patch of brilliant red and yellow cannas and a myriad of other flowers in front of her tiny apartment in Gulfport, MS. She taught me a lot about nature, flowers and trees. She also loved growing vegetables in earlier years. My mama was a strong influence in my life, and was keenly intelligent. She could spot a fraud a mile away. She had little education but was able to express a deep sense of her love of nature, and was grateful that God had created such a beautiful world for us to live in. She inspired this painting. Since spring is Tuesday, I wanted to share it. This particular one hung in the gallery at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church along with the caption below. You can read more about the gallery, and view another of my paintings at this website. http://www.jfbc.org/glimpses_gallery/artgallery/with_flash/html/index.html

TITLE: My Peaceful Garden-As a child of an alcoholic father there were many times when my brothers, sisters and I weren’t sure of our future or even our next meal. My mother would open her Bible and read to us the scripture, Matthew 6:28, “…see the lilies of the field…” That verse has stayed with me throughout my life to trust our Heavenly Father for our needs, when we stay obedient to him.
TYPE OF WORK: Acrylic

SCRIPTURE: Matthew 6:28- “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all His splendor was dressed like one of these.”

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wonderful blog. Keep it up.

Maggie Brendan said...

Thank you anonymous! Please visit again. I'm trying to blog more frequently when time allows.

Lloyd and Shirley said...

Loved your painting of the garden. How often is the gallery open and where is it located?

Maggie Brendan said...

Hey, Shirley, The gallery is on the 3rd floor of our church. We have a huge 3 story atrium at Johnson Ferry Baptist In Marietta on Johnson Ferry Road. Usually the paintings hang for at least 8 wks for each theme. Right now I think it called "The Body" because of Easter.