Charcoal Hands

I'm working with #charcoal today. Laying it down on a gold canvas. One of our sons took this beautiful photo, and I was delighted to see how it turned out!  I keep charcoal in these little terracotta pots.

When we went to The Netherlands we visited Rembrandt's house.  What a delight it was to visit his place.  It's a five story house, typical of what you'd find in Amsterdam.  His studio was on the top floor where he would get the best light for his work.  The second to the top floor was for his eclectic collection of odd things to paint.  I distinctly remember - being from Texas - seeing that he had an armadillo.  Ha!  That would have been exotic to him!  Actually, a LIVE armadillo would be pretty exotic to me - we only find them dead on the road.  Sorry, but it's true.  We've lived here 17 years and I've only seen one live armadillo.

Oh, goodness, I loved the Netherlands.  I'm Dutch. It did my heart good to find so many white skinned, freckly, frizzy haired people - my people - in one place.  Made me feel right at home.

 Rembrandt used these little pots for paint mixing.  Of course in those days, they had to mix their own, and it was a very laborious project.  I need to think of that when it takes me a long time to prepare myself and my studio for painting.  I picked up a few replicas in the gift shop and have loved them well.  This particular one is covered in paint because I also use them for mixing.

Even the charcoal and the hands are beautiful.  God fitted us for creativity. Creativity itself is a gift from God.