Tuesday 4 ~ Art (and Family Treasures)

 Art

Tuesday 4


Hi Friends and welcome back to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 where we give you 4 questions each week to ponder and answer. It also gives you a chance to see how other Bloggers feel about things and an opportunity to make new friends.

This week let's talk about art.

1. Are you artistic in any way and if so, how so? Knitting, crochet, drawing, painting, writing lovely word art, home décor, lovely meals? There are many ways to be artistic.

I used to be more "artistic" than I am now. When I was young I did a lot of drawing, but never really learned to paint.  Horses and Portraits were more my specialty.  I don't have any examples of the horses I used to draw now (without doing some digging in boxes in closets where no wants to go...) But there is one example of the portraits I used to draw:

I drew this of our first son Benton, when he was about 3 months old. However, I drew it from a photograph because a 3 month old baby would never be still long enough for anyone to draw a portrait of them! LOL.  It was my intention to draw a similar portrait of each of our sons when they were about the same age, but what I soon learned was that with each subsequent baby, there was no time left for me to do much artwork!  And now that it would seem that there would be plenty of time, I don't have the skill anymore.  If you don't use it, you lose it!

So now my art work is primarily what photographs you see on my blog posts...nature photos especially. I enjoy taking pictures and sharing them with you all here, but I seldom ever print them as it is just too expensive.  Here's a few of the ones that were deemed "frame-worthy":

This picture is entitled "The Angel of the Woods".  I took this photo as the sun was rising up through the trees in the woods near our last home in Salt Springs, FL.  After posting it on Facebook there were several comments about seeing the "Angel" in the picture.  It was one of God's special gifts to me while we lived there. I would walk by this spot every day and always had a sense of God's Presence watching over us and protecting us, literally, through several bad storms and other difficult situations that took place during those years.  Of course, we know that God is always with us, but this was just an added little "sign" of His Presence.  This photo now hangs in my bathroom, where I can see it every day and am still reminded of God's Presence. It's very comforting.

Deuteronomy 31:6

6 Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.”

Here's a few other photos I took while living in the Ocala National Forest:

(with the exception of the Barred Owl...I believe my sister actually took that picture at my Dad's house, but that's another story!)

This little bear was contemplating how to get the bird seed out of that feeder. If you look at one of the pictures above, you will see how he did it.  After that we had to move the bird feeder into an enclosed/fenced area, but that still didn't always ensure that the bears would not get to them. They'd just tear down the fence if they were hungry enough!  Click HERE for more about that!

So yes, I guess that is my kind of artwork.

2. Does any art hang on your walls or grace your tables or shelves at home? How about your front door or windows.. what about your yard?

Yard "Art"...

Walls and shelves at home...Are you ready for this?

Last week when I wrote about my husband's Aunt Dorothy, I should have included this painting above, which was painted by her.  The painting is of my husband's grandparents' home. You can read more about that HERE.

And these paintings were painted by my dad, and have special significance, and of course there's a story about that HERE TOO!

Another painting by my Dad, but no story attached for this one. It's just one of his special painting of a barn, and was a Christmas gift to me one year. 

Needlepoint picture by my paternal Grandma (Mursch):  (Seems like there's a link to just about everything in my house that I've written about at some point in time!)

This Indian Brave hangs in the Guest Room, a painting by our son Matthew when he was about 11 years old:

And this cross-stitched picture also hangs in the guest room, a gift from a dear friend:

Our sweet daughter-in-love Rose created these signs for us as Christmas gifts...

And our son Benton built this log cabin "birdhouse", originally for my dad, but then I inherited it:

It was modeled after this drawing by my Dad of his family cabin,  and of course there are stories about that too!

Our son Scott created these "Dove Candy Wrapper" people as special gifts for us:

and also this beautiful copper angel:

3. Do you have a favorite artist or artists and do you have a favorite piece of art?

Can't say that I have a favorite artist or piece of art, except for what I've just shared with you above. My favorite artists are those who took the time to lovingly create something special for me throughout the years, and it seems as though I've only scratched the surface as I look around me.   I do love Norman Rockwell, Thomas Kincade, and John Sloane (the artist who paints the pictures on my Country Seasons Calendar)

4. Home décor can be art. When you bought things for your home did you plan out the décor or did it all just fall together. Was there a theme?

No theme to our home, unless you want to call it Vintage Family Heirlooms...  Here's a link to an old "Tuesday 4" post that gives a pretty good description of our home decor.    

Sorry to have so many links to previous posts in this post, but the more I look around, the more I realize that I've already written about so many things in this house that go along with this theme, so I just couldn't help myself. LOL.  It will give you some fun reading to do in your spare time if you want to go back and look at all these posts.   Of course, you've probably already seen most of them before anyway.

Thank you, Annie, for coming up with these questions again this week. I hope this didn't drive everyone crazy with so much stuff!!!  Praying you all have a wonderfully blessed week.

Note from Annie:
If you are interested in learning about art, may I recommend Sister Wendy from the BBC? Her lecture series on art is available on YouTube HERE and are quite enlightening and entertaining. She will help you see art in a brand new way.