Mother and Child Art, April Challenge Day 6

mother and child 2

Mother and Child 2, 8×10 oil on canvas $112 click to purchase

I’ve been focused on mother and child art for a while now.  I go back and forth between the abstracted faces and the more natural ones.

For Lent I decided to set aside some time each day to reflect on the scripture readings of that day.  I’ve failed more days than not.  But a couple days ago, in a last ditch effort to keep my observance, I looked up the readings just after crawling into bed for the night. The old testament reading (Isaiah 49), was one I’ve heard many times before but I haven’t been able to get it out of my head:

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me;

my Lord has forgotten me.”

Can a mother forget her infant,

be without tenderness for the child of her womb?

Even should she forget,

I will never forget you.

Yes, mother and infant– that image with which I’ve become so consumed (obsessed?).  But what struck me was that the image of a mother and her infant is in response to a declaration of neglect.  Oh, Zion.  I’ve been there, and some days I still am.  It’s good to be reminded that sometimes unfortunate circumstances, or, let’s just call it what it is– suffering– isn’t a curse but maybe, unfortunate as it is, an opportunity.

This painting struggled.  There are at least five different versions of it underneath this one.  Today was the day I decided to stop fighting it and so out came the big paintbrush and away went the original image.  In seconds, a painting I’d been fighting for weeks vanished and this one, almost effortlessly, emerged.  Again, I think it’s what’s underneath that makes it special.  Those failures and setbacks creating the soil in which this one could be planted.  I’m quite pleased.

 

Picture of Denise Hopkins

Denise Hopkins

April 6, 2014

Share Post

Leave a Reply

blog

Related Blog Posts

placeholder image
New Bird Minis Preview– May 2025!

9 new bird minis will be available first to my VIPS at 8am on May 3 2025. They will all be...

View Post
🎨 A Mother’s Day Gift Guide for Every Kind of Mom (Featuring Fine Art Prints!)

Mother’s Day is just around the corner, and what better way to celebrate the wonderful moms in our lives than...

View Post
Day 31. Creativity

These are actually just little pieces of my day 31 painting which I have been working on for several days...

View Post