Thursday, November 15, 2007

Recipe for Success

Psalm 145:2-3 (The Message)
I’ll bless you every day, and keep it up from now to eternity.
God is magnificent; he can never be praised enough.
There are no boundaries to his greatness.

Proverbs 16:3 (NIV)
Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.

Oak Tree on Ratcliff Street ... work in progress photos ...



Whew! What a week! My art exhibit went up in the LSU Medical Center Library on Tuesday, and I’m planning to take some photos tomorrow ... I’ll try to get them posted by tomorrow night. Above is a work in progress photo of the last painting I completed for the show ... unfortunately I forgot to take a final photo before I delivered the art, so I’ll get a good pic of it when I go, and post it tomorrow as well.

My day invariably goes smoother, and God grants me much more patience and perseverance with obstacles and difficulties when I take some real time for prayer in the morning. Reading in my little book of 19th century devotionals, I was quietly encouraged during this hectic week by these words of timeless wisdom, to re-commit every aspect of my life and work to the glory of God, every morning:
Morning by morning think, for a few moments, of the chief employments of the day, any one thing of greater moment than others, thine own especial trial, any occasions of it which are likely to come that day, and by one short strong act commend thyself beforehand in all to God; offer all thy thoughts, words, and deeds to Him – to be governed, guided, accepted by Him. Choose some great occasions of the day, such as bring with them most trial to thee, on which, above others, to commend thyself to God.

– E. B. Pusey


Will you not, before venturing away from your early quiet hour, “commit thy works” to Him definitely, the special things you have to do today, and the unforeseen work which He may add in the course of it?

– F. R. Havergal

And finally, In my last post I showed work in progress photos of this painting, Anticipating Flagstaff: I decided to put the finished version here at the end of this post so you can more easily see the pics together:


© 2007 Karen Mathison Schmidt
24 x 18 • acrylic on cradled Gessobord
This painting will be available for sale after my show
at the LSU Medical Center Library in Shreveport,
November 13 - December 31, 2007

5 comments:

Kelley Carey MacDonald said...

Karen... this is breathtaking. I really love it! You make it seem so EASY!

Good luck with your show, too! Let us know how it goes.

Helen Read said...

Lovely work - all of it! And your posts about committing every work of our hands, hearts, souls to the Lord is such a timely (and wonderful) reminder. Thanks for posting those thoughts as well as your work!

Anonymous said...

Hello,

I saw one of your spectacular painting on Pinterest. It looked like the one you have here: Oak Tree on Ratcliff Street. This is the link to your photo on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/pin/196328864975985861/

I don’t know if you mind your paintings being pinned. If not, I was wondering if I may embed your painting from Pinterest to use it in a blog post of mine. I was looking for a photo of a vintage tree lined street. This is beyond lovely. It is outstanding!

You could view this page as an example of how I would want to use your photo. http://effortlesslyhope.blogspot.com/2012/10/grandmothers-dressing-table.html

The bottom of the post explains what I am doing. (It is a short post.)

I could show a specific link to this post. Please let me know what you think. If you do NOT allow this use of your painting, I understand completely.

Thank you for your time
:) Hope

Anonymous said...

Hello again,

I was so pleased when I saw that you had visited my blog and left me a note saying that I could use your painting. Thank you. What's more, I was delighted that you chose to follow my blogs!!!! How kind of you!

Thank you,
:) Hope

Anonymous said...

I posted your painting today.It is just absolutely beautiful!
Thank you!

:)Hope