Friday, August 28, 2009

A View From Heaven


One of the things I loved about being in Boone during my college days was that you could be surrounded by people and controlled chaos one minute and then get in your car, drive for 10 minutes, and be surrounded in nature's beauty and peacefulness. I loved being so close to Blowing Rock, Valle Crucis and the Blue Ridge Parkway to a name a few places.

One of my favorite stops was the Moses Cone Memorial Park. Flat Top Manor is beautiful and stately, with rocking chairs that invite you to sit down and stop for awhile. It was the total opposite of the frantic lifestyle that seems to surround us all. Years after I graduated from ASU, I realized that I never took any pictures of the manor or the grounds and wished that I had taken a little more time to do so.

Fortunately, my parents (who fell in love with Boone too), were visiting up that way and my dad took a photograph of Flat Top Manor -- or I should say, he took a photograph FROM Flat Top Manor. All this time, I thought I wanted a photograph of the house, but I really wanted to capture the view from the house. I knew I had to paint it.

It took several months to paint this particular painting. The intricacies of the distance fencing, combined with the railing, floors and rocking chairs were almost maddening. But what I wanted to capture the most was that feeling of looking out over that calm, peaceful and beautiful scene. The distant mist and the feeling that you need to sit down in one of those chairs for awhile is what I hope that I captured.

Over the years, friends and I have discussed what we think Heaven is like. I don't know, but I think a cool fall morning with the mist rising over the trees as the sun comes up, sitting in a rocking chair listening to it creak against the porch while surrounded by nature's bounty sounds heavenly to me. So, that is how this particular piece was named, "A View From Heaven".

I hope that this painting relaxes you, inspires you and reminds you of all the beauty God has surrounded us with in this world.

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