Spring Bouquet Flower Paintings by Arizona Artist Amy Whitehouse

This painting is for Day 20 of CHALLENGE 60, 6"x8", Oil, $60. Please see previous post for info on CHALLENGE 60. I feel convicted to encourage everyone who reads this posting to do something creative every day. And more specifically, to do what your real desire to do is whether it's writing, dancing, music, drawing...whatever you are drawn to, not what you have time to do or is expedient or fits into your daily list. For years, I "didn't have time" to paint, or materials or space. Granted those are valid points but you are smart enough to figure out how to get those things. You really don't have time NOT to do what you are meant to do in the creative realm. Madeleine L'Engle recounts a short story about a village where the only clockmaker and repairer died. "Many of the villagers abandoned their timepieces. One day a renowned clockmaker and repairer came through the village, and the people crowded around him and begged him to fix their broken clocks and watches. He spent many hours looking at all the faulty timepieces, and at last announced that he could repair only those whose owners had kept them wound, because they were the only ones which would be able to remember how to keep time. So we must daily keep things wound: that is, we must pray when prayer seems dry as dust; we must write when we are physically tired, when our hearts are heavy, when our bodies are in pain. We may not always be able to make our 'clock' run correctly, but at least we can keep it wound so that it will not forget." This is from Walking on Water by L'Engle which you must read.