Real Gold is all around us. The kind you can’t wear and it’s everywhere the light touches.
Happy Earth Day!
I am so excited to introduce the first two paintings from a series I’m calling “Real Gold”. This series will be everything that I hold close to my heart and is important to me. Everything that is gold to me.
To start this series I wanted to share my love for nature and some of the views from our small acreage. My husband and I are celebrating 3 years April 25th since we got the keys to the little house on the hill 🙏🏼🙌🏼🏡❤️🔥😭 Surrounded by rolling prairies and rainbow skies this place continues to inspire and transform our lives. I started going through pictures I have taken during the golden hours when the land is drenched with a warm wash of sunshine. The golden hour occurs twice a day. Just before the sun starts to come up between 4 degree and 6 degrees and then one hour before the sun goes down. The light becomes magic and transforms the land into a sea of glistening golden light.
I live for both sunrises and sunsets. I never used to be up early enough but moving to this house changed things for me. I now get excited to wake up early and watch the light paint the landscape. The sunsets are always dramatic and never the same against the hills striking silhouette.
“Life will be brighter than noonday, and darkness will become like morning.”
Job 11:17 NIV
https://job.bible/job-11-17
“Morning Glow” original acrylic on canvas 40”w x 30”h x .75”d
“Sun Kissed Evening” original acrylic on canvas 30”w x 40”h x .75”d
Taking care of this planet has always been something I am very passionate about. Especially after moving to the country spring of 2019. My husband and I have never experienced country living so this has been an awesome learning experience for us. It is just so peaceful out here. We started raising chickens last year and now have 15 laying hens all different breeds. We also love tending our huge garden so we can make homemade salsa then can enough to store for later and share. There are so many ways to live off the land. Every year we’ve been trying to implement something new to our homestead. This year we might be adding ducks or alpacas. Or maybe bees but the exciting thing is it’s our little slice of heaven that we can cultivate however we feel lead to. I thank God everyday that we get to be the caretakers of this land. I feel extremely blessed and inspired daily as I come and go through these rolling hills.
Just being being able to be out here in the rugged countryside of Iowa feeds my soul. Like the last couple days all the frogs are at the pond south of us just singing and croaking away while I was planting some new perennials. Being outside immersed in nature, hearing the sounds, smelling the smells changes our mood, immune system and reduces stress levels . It reminds me that we have a huge responsibility to take care of the land and sea and everything alive on this planet.
“God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.”
Genesis 1:28-29, 31 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/gen.1.28-31.NIV
We can take part in taking care of this world by not being wasteful, using products that are organic or recycled, conserving gas by not traveling to unnecessary places. I found a great list of things you can do at the link below.
20 ways you can help the Planet for Earth Day
Turn off the lights
Turn off the water
Plant a tree or a bush
Plant perennial flowers
Clean up a park or forest preserve
Feed the animals
Gather and recycle batteries
Use glass bottles
Buy items that have been made out of recyclable materials
Remember to recycle at home
Take shorter showers
Unplug
Use reusable bags at the store
Use non-toxic cleaners
Go car-free
Make sculptures or usable things from junk
Recycle old cell phones
Replace regular lightbulbs with Compact Fluorescent Lights
Eat sustainable food
Buy clothing made from sustainable, natural materials
I pray that we learn to take better care of our planet. We can make a difference by doing a bunch of little things differently and by sharing how we impact our environment.
Thank you for checking out my new artwork you can purchase a print or an original by visiting my Store.
36” x 36” x 1.5” Original mixed media on canvas. All copyright and reproduction rights are reserved by the artist.
Created live for the 5pm Easter Service 3.31.24 at the Lutheran Church of Hope in west Des Moines, IA
Our Hope creative arts artist couldn’t make it to paint for the last service so with 40 mins notice to prepare I jumped for Jesus!!! This is in honor of my faithful mother Pat Jacobs @pj713 who loves Jesus with all her heart. Even as I started painting the woman became purple my moms favorite color. And she wanted to be remembered by butterflies.
I’m in awe of God and how he can make a way so spontaneously. That was the shortest notice I’ve ever had to paint live for worship. What a gift to have that opportunity to be completely inspired and obedient in the moment on the day that our Lord and Savior was raised from the dead.
Your name is power and healing! I’ll praise you anywhere and everywhere!
In the painting the woman represents the freedom, healing and power of renewing our minds with God’s word.
”Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.“
Romans 12:2 NIV
The sermon was based on the verses in John 20:1-8:
The Resurrection
20 Early on Sunday morning,[a] while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 2 She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. 4 They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. 6 Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, 7 while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. 8 Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed.
I titled the painting after my moms favorite Bible verse and the clear message Jesus is delivering…Renew our minds!
”This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Please, Lord, please save us. Please, Lord, please give us success. Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, shining upon us. Take the sacrifice and bind it with cords on the altar. You are my God, and I will praise you! You are my God, and I will exalt you! Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.“
Psalms 118:24-29 NLT
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