Turtle Lake is in Northern Minnesota and summer visits there always include lots of fishing. This photo below is of one of our friend’s favorite fishing spots. Its shady bank is a haven for fish and the water’s surface is littered with lily pads. I didn’t catch fish, but I did catch the perfect inspiration for a lovely lily pad painting.
For the actual painting, I zoomed in to just focus on the lily pads for this one. This is done on an 11″ by 14″ canvas board. The palette included Blue Grey, Ultramarine Blue, Rose Red, Burnt Umber, Titanium White, Veridian, Yellow Green, Hansa Yellow, and Cadmium Yellow Hue.
Lily Pads on Turtle Lake Process
My process starts with mixing the darkest paint first and laying that layer down very thin, As I build color, each layer I add gets thicker. I begin painting with a bristle brush and toward the end of the painting am applying the paint with a palette knife. Enjoy this video of the process below and I hope you catch a little inspiration for yourself as well.
Lily Pads on Turtle Lake Painting
Here is the end result. Check out my Art for Sale page for more available artwork and contact me if you are interested in buying this one.
Lily Pads on Turtle Lake, 11″x14″ on canvas board, framed. $100.00
There is a place in Minnesota that nourishes my body, mind, and soul called Turtle Lake. Some of the dearest people we know live there and their cabin has been a place of healing for me both times I’ve gone there. The pine tree-filled sky filled the cells of my body with oxygen and the clear crisp lake water soaked into my joints healing inflammation. The green and blue space surrounding me was rest for my weary mind. To get there, you have to drive down this winding dirt road through the forest. It’s like a path to peace.
When the temperatures here in Texas reached over 100 last week, I remembered what it felt like to be there and found some photos of sweet memories from our trips there. Once I looked through them there was nothing else to do, but start painting them. Here’s the first one. Enjoy!
Road to Turtle Lake 8×10 oil on canvas board
This is a small study and not for sale, but someday I plan on painting a larger one like this. Check out my gallery page for other paintings for sale. The style is similar to my palette knife paintings, but this one is done in loose brush strokes and celebrates the contrasting dark and light colors, of the thick woods with the cleared light-filled road. Inspired by the life of the woods and the joy of reaching the light at the far bend on the way to the lake.
One of my favorite crops to see growing in a field is lavender! The purple fluffy rows of bushy blooming herbs fill my heart with happiness. The herb gets its name from the Latin root lavare, which means “to wash.” This makes sense as it is so useful in a hot bath for soaking aching muscles and relaxing. While reading more about lavender, I also learned that it is a common remedy for insomnia and a balm for anxiety, depression, and fatigue. What could be sweeter than French Lavender? How about a small painting covered in thick brush strokes of blue and purple oil paint laying out a field under a hazy cool sky? I just loved doing this little painting and haven’t posted in a while so it’s time for its debut!
Sweet Lavender Field, oil on canvas board, 8″x10″. $55.00
What works for me in this painting is the sun-soaked yellow grass next to the bold purple lavender. Yellow is also the complementary color to purple so it adds a lot of “pop” to have them next to each other. It is done on a small 8×10-inch canvas board and was just a quick study. My plan is to do a much larger one like this when I have more time. This is just the appetizer, but for now, though, “Sweet Lavender Field” gets the spotlight.
Two of my favorite sources of inspiration for creating art about animals are books! Reading James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small warmed my heart and drew me into the country English setting and the quaint world of a country veterinarian with curiosity and wonder. Another book I love is Rien Poortvliets’ Noah’s Ark. It’s a beautifully done artistic journal of what life with animals on an ark could have been like. He’s an extremely gifted artist and has created an amazing celebration of life in this book. A graphite study I did from his book is below showing all kinds of wonderful animal noses.
Study from Rien Poortvliets’ Noah’s Ark
Creatures Great And Small On Parade
This year in my Draw Awesome Art class we were challenged to create a literal parade of lovely animals in various mediums. Below are some of those amazing creatures and some of my own from outside of class as well. Seeing them all together feels a bit like a party celebrating life.
Sea Turtle, Acrylic on CanvasBirds on the SandTiger, Pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes paper 8×10″Butterfly, oil on canvas, 8×8″Rhino, CharcoalEagle sketch in charcoal
Boston Terrier, GraphiteBirds of a feather, colored pencilRobin, colored pencilWatercolor Tree FrogChicken in pastel pencilHorse with Blue Mane, oilPen and Ink IguanaEBiutlephant in charcoalClarence, collageButterfly, Mixed Media Butterfly, 20″ x 20″ UNAVAILABLEBird for Charlotte, oil on canvasBee, pen and ink
Creature Gifts
One of the most rewarding things I have done as an artist so far has been giving the gift of art to another person. This year I completed two pet portraits and hope to do many more next year. Meet Aria and Trapper.
Trapper, Pastel on Canson Mi-Tientes paper 8×10″
Both of these were done on 8×10″ Mi-Tientes paper in pastel. and come matted for an 11×14″ frame. Commissions are possible in this same size for $100.00. Contact me if you have a special furry friend that you want a portrait of at [email protected].
Glorious Messenger is a Christmas painting inspired by Luke 2:8-10 I just finished.
In the passage, the shepherd’s encounter with an angel from the Lord is recorded and leaves the reader with a sense of awe and wonder. It made me curious. The only description we have is that the angel is described as suddenly appearing to them and because the glory of the Lord filled the area with light, they were terrified. What would that look like? What would it have felt like to witness this? This painting is not intended to answer these questions definitively but is my exploration of the wonder and unknown surrounding the story.
I love following The Chosen productions about the life of Christ. Check out their piece called The Shepherd here which really began it all. Spoiler alert, the video does not attempt to show us what the angel looked like but it does a wonderful job of capturing the fear and awe the encounter would have inspired.
Of course, there is no way of knowing what the Angel messengers looked like when they announced the birth of Jesus that night to the shepherds. I don’t claim to know either, but the story and my interpretation of a Glorious Messenger inspire this painting. This was done with layers of oil paint and a palette knife with a light-filled bold color palette. The strokes were intended to capture the energy and drama of the moment when the and, along with the angel’s, proclaims, “Don’t be afraid! I have good news for you, a message that will fill everyone with joy. 11 Today your Savior, Christ the Lord, was born in David’s city. 12 This is how you will recognize him: You will find an infant wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger.”
This is indeed good news! Praying your Christmas season is a celebration of great joy as well.”
For more about purchasing this piece or any art, see the Art For Sale Page.
How painting a Sea Turtle showed me the value of mid-tones. This was a commission from a friend who absolutely loves Sea Turtles. I love them too but this was not a subject I would have chosen because of the detail involved but I dove into the challenge.
As the painting progressed I focused on the darkest and lightest values during the entire process. At the suggestion of my wonderful artist friends in Art Kula, I finally added the mid-tones at the end.
Only dark and light tonesMid tones addedSea Turtle Progression
The video below shows the Sea Turtle progression from start to finish. You will notice how heavy the turtle looks until the final frame and how the background seems dull. This is an excellent example of why dark, light, and middle values are all necessary for a piece of art. As soon as the highlights of pink and lighter purple are added the entire painting pops and the background looks brighter. and the turtle actually looks like He is swimming free, which is the name of this painting.
Swimming Free, Acrylic on Canvas, 16″ x 20″, SOLD
I can’t say I am eager to do another sea turtle or any reptile with scales any time soon, but it is quite rewarding to see the finished turtle swimming free.
Powerful, gentle, rolling, crashing, sweet, salty waves engaged my heart for hours on a beach in Roatan last month. The waves that day moved within the ocean’s space and the tide’s rhythm contently. They were safe to swim in. I considered how the constant motion of the ocean is contained when waves on the sand reach their natural limits. Watching the beautiful conflict of rolling water breaking with a crash, and melting back soothingly into the ocean was mesmerizing. The movement stilled me with a calm rhythm that healed.
Sand is the stuff of the beach
A soft landing pad for the waves, sand sticks to my wet skin when I walk in it making warm and soft cradles for my footprints. The soles of my feet do not know that the sand is actually hard rock, brittle shells, and sharp coral broken into small fragments called grains. Walking barefoot on coral and rock would normally bring pain. My husband found this out when he stepped on a sharp coral while we were in Belize and needed three stitches on the bottom of his foot. It is still healing and we were both surprised at how large a cut he had from the encounter. But, here, on this sandy beach, on this beautiful day, the grains of hard rock and sharp shells and coral, broken so small they are soft to step on, welcome bare-footed travelers without malice. The sand supported me.
I don’t like math much so I didn’t waste any time considering how many grains of sand there are on all the beaches of the world. If you like math, I found a wild estimate by asking Alexa.
Earth’s beaches contain roughly 5,000 billion billion-aka, 5 sextillion-grains of sand. We’ve now estimated that there are about 8,000,000,000 equal to 8×10^9 grains of sand per cubic meter of beach, and that the Earth contains roughly 700,000,000,000 equal to 7×10^11 cubic meters of beach.
Alexa
That does not even include the sand in deserts or on the bottom of the ocean. It’s mind-boggling, and some may find that stuff interesting, but I’m an artist and would much rather tell you how all that wonderful sand inspired this painting.
A Wave On the Sand by Cheryl Harris White
A Wave On the Sand Painting
Considering the breaking waves, and the broken pieces of hard rock made into soft sand, I also observed how the blues in front of me were also separated into sky and water, deep and shallow. How the light reflected differently on the wet sand and the water along the horizon or next to a boat also seemed broken into dazzling pieces of color and diamonds. The sand in shadow is almost blue and purple, while the sand in the sun is dazzling white. Sand magnified under a microscope reveals even more colors and a stunning array of shapes and forms. I wanted to put the ” knowing” of that into the painting as well with broken brush strokes loaded with color.
The life-giving light and the broken beauty of the ocean inspired me to paint this piece. I loved it all and wanted to capture how a place that was broken to pieces actually made me feel so whole and connected to something bigger than myself.
To see a World in a Grain of Sand, And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand, And Eternity in an hour,
From Auguries of Innocence by William Blake
William Blake wrote what my heart spoke to me that day. The beauty, power, and delicacy of the waves and the sand drew me to consider the Creator of it all with curiosity and wonder. That is what I wanted to explore as I created this painting.
If you have been to the beach lately, I would love you to share what about your experience there that you connected with most. I am planning on painting more pieces within this theme and would love to hear from you. Check out more art that is available for sale here.
Beach therapy happens when you step out of the stress and pressure of your daily life and plunge yourself into days of rest at the shore of the ocean. Beach Therapy for an Artis’s soul happened by allowing myself to embrace the actual Creator of this beauty and explore more deeply what He is like. Looking at the expanse of the horizon and the power of the ocean, I encountered God in a posture of wonder and awe. The entire experience was a gift.
Ocean Inspiration
There is so much to love about the ocean. The rhythm of the waves and tide, breathing in the sweet clean air, the banquet of varied blues which is a feast for the eyes. As I soaked my body in the healing salt water, inflammation and pain melted away bringing refreshment to my aching joints and tired muscles. A one-hour massage on the beach also helped. In the midst of the needed rest, I found my mind was swirling with inspiration to paint the nature and beauty rolling out in front of me.
Three Birds on the Beach
Launching from this fresh inspiration, I am posting the first of several beach paintings I am planning to do now that I am back home. This one is done in acrylic on a large 36″ x 24″ canvas and titled Three Birds on the Beach. The spots of color randomly sprinkled through the piece remind me of confetti, the rays of the sun, and the sparkles of light on the water. It’s a celebration of the color, light, and life that soaked deep into my soul on each day of my beach therapy.
Three Birds on Beach, oil on canvas 30×40 inches 500.00
Therapy for my Soul
The photos, memories, and little bit of sand I brought home with me were beautiful and did nourish and replenish me. However, the true therapy happened as I considered God and how mighty and loving He must be to have made such as thing as the ocean. The time I spent soaking it all in showed me more about who God is and what He must be like. John Piper explains this way better than I can so if you are curious about how being at the ocean reflects the character of God check out this powerful video.
What must God be like?
Have you ever done a search about how many references to the ocean and waves there are in scripture? It’s amazing. What must God be like is a question we could spend a lifetime trying to answer. That’s an invitation friend!
When we look at oceans or mountains, whales or bears, fields or deserts, God wants us to see the beauty, power, and wisdom in his creation and think, “What must God be like!” He wants us to ride the waves he has made into worship, and climb the mountains he built to see more of him.
John Piper
I can’t answer the question of what God must be like for you here in one blog post or a single painting, but next time you are at the ocean, soak it in and relish in the wonder. Be curious and explore and if you can’t get to the ocean soon, just ask Him the question where you are. He is always listening and He will find a way to show you.
On August 13th, 2021 www.CherylWhiteArt.com was born, and one year later, I look back and remember the journey. I had recently switched from working full-time to part-time and was pouring my creative self back into art.
Desire, ask, believe, receive.
Stella Terrill Mann
One Year Later, Something to Celebrate!
Looking back, I find many things to celebrate… 2 art sales, 20 posts, over a dozen sold paintings, many welcomed women to my home for art nights, and countless happy hours spent in my studio. My blood pressure dropped 10 points along with my stress level and I had margin in my life to focus on some health needs and spiritual soul care that had been pushed to the perimeter of a hurried life.
John 132, Oil on Canvas with a palette knife, 16×18, $250.00John 129, Oil on Canvas with a palette knife, 16×18, $250.00Forgiving Father, Acrylic on canvas, 28″ x 48″Metamorphose Mixed Media Butterfly, 20″ x 20″ UNAVAILABLEOnions and GarlicBubble Girl, pastel on paper from Canson Mi-Teintes Gray Tones pad
There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.
Martha Graham
One Year, A Milestone to be Grateful For!
Counting gifts I receive is nothing new. I started this habit many years ago when I read Ann Voskamp’s book One Thousand Gifts and it completely lifted me from a self-focused heart posture of disappointment and complaint to an outward-focused posture of joy. After spending one year writing a list of 1,000 gifts I received, I couldn’t stop and I did it again. This has become a practice in my life that keeps me grateful for whatever I receive. I won’t list all 2,000 from the list here, but 12 of them that are specific to my art journey this year are below; one for each month.
My blogging buddy and prayer partner, Nancy Gibson,without whom I would not have embarked on this journey.
My husband, Duke, who gave me the gift of time and space for this process.
My friend, and amazing life coach Jill Hawkins who taught me to have a growth mindset full of curiosity, face fear, take risks and be open to new possibilities.
My great Aunt Dixie, a beautiful soul, and a loving adult in my life who always gave me space and freedom to embrace the creativity inside me and inspired me to be that person for others.
Pastel pencils by Faber Castell, one of my new favorite mediums.
Renewing my love of art journaling with my high school friend PJ!
Space and RestArt Journaling Session with my friendPJ’s Art JournalArt Night Collage Card ProjectPitt Pastels! My favorite!Art ClassArt NightMy Studio
Looking Ahead to Next Year!
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters, compared to what lies within us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I love this quote because it takes away the power of past pain and failures, and lessens the fear of the unknown future ahead. It helps me recognize that what is inside me is powerful, full of potential, and something to embrace and act upon. What lies ahead in the next year to come is impossible to predict. CoVid taught us that. I do know that I will be taking my own advice from my previous post, to keep creating and not quit and see where the adventure leads. Won’t you join me?
It’s a great question: How important are drawing skills anyway?
Many artists new to painting can find enjoyment in mixing colors, art journaling, experimenting with different mediums, and splashing around a canvas with a bit of color without learning how to draw. There are many ways to get your image onto the canvas first before starting a painting without drawing, so why should artists bother to learn to draw?
Benefits of learning to draw
My opinion is that yes, drawing is definitely a valuable skill for artists no matter what type of art they prefer to do. Drawing helps with so many of the important aspects of art such as form, detail, light and shadow, composition, perspective, and more. I think working with as many mediums as possible can only help improve art skills in all areas and across all mediums.
Resources for learning to draw
This is something I missed in school. Being involved in band forced me to make a choice about electives and art simply would not fit in, but all through school I was drawn to it. That pun was not on purpose, but I’ll leave it be. My option instead was to learn to draw as an adult. There are so many books on how to draw filling the shelves of bookstores and I have invested in many of them as well as participated in community workshops and followed along on youtube videos on how to draw.
Can I save you some time? The best online course for the money I have found so far is Draw Awesome by Phil Davies. The course is a comprehensive drawing curriculum that builds on your skills as you go and covers multiple drawing mediums and styles. One of the best books on drawing does not tell you how to draw, it shows you. It’s called Noah’s Ark by Rien Poortvliet and I still refer to it often. A great resource to inspire you if you feel blocked as an artist is a book called The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I’d love to hear more in the comments if you know of super good resources as well.
Drawing with Graphite
The drawings below were done with graphite pencils as part of the Draw Awesome course mentioned above.
Onions and GarlicAnimal Noses Study from Rien Poortvliet’s bookEye study oneEye study two
Drawing with Charcoal
These are some examples of charcoal drawings from the coarse as well. It is a dreamy medium and very easy to correct mistakes so I highly recommend this at the beginning.
Drawing with Ink
These were done with Sakura Pigma Micron pens sizes 005 through 08 and were alao part of the Draw Awesome course.
Drawing with Pastels
The pastels I used for these were Pitt Pastel Pencils from Faber-Castell.
Bubble Girl in pastel
Drawing is a process to be enjoyed
I have experienced such relaxation and calm while drawing by embracing it as a process to be enjoyed instead of focusing on ending up with a perfect result. Expectations are pre meditated disapointments, so let’s just leave those at the door when you sit down to create. Viewing each drawing session as a learning opportunity leaves room for growth and gradual improvement. I know I am not done learning how to draw, but that is a reason to keep drawing, not a reason to give up. Ever notice how many children enjoy art but how few adults do? I think one reason this is true is that the creativity in humans is there when we are born, but it has to be fed, nurtured and encouraged. Whenever I meet a child who tells me they love art or love to draw, my advice to them is to never stop doing it no matter how old they get.
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
Pablo Picaso
The power of having a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset makes all the difference between an adult who thinks they are not capable of drawing and an adult who will keep trying until they can. Instead of believing only some people can draw, I choose to believe everybody could draw if given the right materials, instruction and time to practice. By believing that, I am part of those with the potential. If you have read this far, maybe you want to believe that too or are at least a bit curious.
People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at huge waves of the sea, at the long course of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars… and they pass by themselves without wondering.
St. Augustine, Confessions
I say, embrace that curiosity and see where it leads you. For more inspiration check out my post about Creating Something New.
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