Imagination – Building Transformation – 5″ x 7″ Watercolor & Staedtler Pens

“I do believe it is possible to create, even without ever writing a word or painting a picture, by simply molding one’s inner life. And that too is a deed.”
– Etty Hillesum

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Imagination – Building Transformation – 5″ x 7″ Watercolor & Staedtler Pens

Imagination is the word of the week for Illustration Friday.  What many people call Imagination, I call Bethville.  The photo reference for this painting was a really terrible, broken down, old white stucco shack.  (KreativeK at WetCanvas supplied the photo.)  When I look at a gnarly old white building, I see it bursting in color!  It becomes a wonderful blank canvas for me to decorate.  I love color!!! 

About Etty Hillesum

Etty Hillesum, less famous than her contemporary, Anne Frank, lived a short life of great courage. She was born in 1914 in the Netherlands to a Dutch father and a Russian mother. She studied law, Slavic languages, and psychology. Hungry for knowledge, she cut down on food in order to buy books. She went voluntarily to the Westerbork camp to help fellow Jews interned by the Nazis. Her letters detail her experiences; her more meditative diary focuses on issues of faith. She died at Auschwitz in 1943.

A Little Color for Friday the Thirteenth

“The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower,
share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another’s,
smile at someone and receive a smile in return,
are to me continual spiritual exercises.”
–Lee Buscaglia

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

A Little Color for Friday the Thirteenth

I painted this from a photo by Joel at WetCanvas.  It was all brown wood.  I really loved that photo!  I think it was actually a door, but I didn't give it a door knob.  Ooops.  Have a wonderful Friday the 13th and a fun weekend!

Leo F. Buscaglia (1924 -1998)

Buscaglia was teaching in the Department of Special Education at the University of Southern California in the late 1960s when one of his students committed suicide. She had been one of the sets of “kind eyeballs” he always looked for in the large auditorium, because her responses showed him that at least one student was hearing what he said, so the news that she killed herself had a great impact on him. ["What are we doing stuffing facts into people and forgetting that they are human beings?"] This incident led him to form a non-credit class titled Love 1A. There were no grades. (How could you potentially fail someone in this class? That wouldn’t be very loving!) The class led to lectures and a manuscript loosely based on what was shared in those weekly classes. The book found a publisher – and an author surprised to find that the simple title LOVE had never previously been claimed, allowing him to say “I have the copyright on LOVE!” Buscaglia said he never taught this class, only facilitated it, adding that he learned as much as anyone. Someone from a Public Broadcasting System affiliate heard one of his talks and arranged to tape a later presentation, eventually showing it during a pledge drive. The response was so strong that it was presented to the national office for consideration. There was great resistance, because a professor simply standing at a podium lecturing was considered old-fashioned, something from the old days of “educational television.” Still, the message and delivery were so compelling that they gave it a try, and Leo Buscaglia’s warm presentations touched viewers’ hearts through the cool medium of television nearly as effectively as they did in person. He has been called the “granddaddy of motivational speakers” on television. His simple message delivered in a dynamic style made him a popular guest on television talk shows, as well as on the lecture circuit. At one time five of his books were on The New York Times Best Sellers List simultaneously.  Source

Color Anyone? Another White Reference Photo

“Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Color Anyone?  Another White Reference Photo – 5″ x 7″ Watercolor & Sharpie

Since yesterday’s post was totally void of color, I thought you might like some. 
This was painted from a photo by Lisilk at WetCanvas.  The reference photo was all white, except for the nature part.  It was taken in the Bahamas where Li lives.  Her photos are always amazing!

About Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson helped spark the transcendentalist movement with the essay Nature, which described his belief in the spiritual essence of humanity and the natural world. He was born in Boston in 1803. He was a Unitarian minister until he resigned in 1832 to become a philosopher and writer. He suffered the untimely deaths of many of his loved ones: three brothers, his first wife at age 20, and his eldest son at age five. Emerson died in 1882.

Colorful Porch

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”
–William Arthur Ward



Colorful Porch – 5″ x 7″ Watercolor

This was painted from another Belize photo by Li at WetCanvas.  I’ll admit, I added some of this color and some of it was already there.  It did have pink railings.  he he 
Every time I come home from the Caribbean, I want to add more color into my life.  Our home has a lot of brown.  Our project for the winter is to infuse some bold color into our living room.

William Arthur Ward (1921–1994)^, author of Fountains of Faith, is one of America’s most quoted writers of inspirational maxims.

More than 100 articles, poems and meditations written by Ward have been published in such magazines as Reader’s Digest, This Week, The Upper Room, Together, The Christian Advocate, The Adult Student, The Adult Teacher, The Christian Home, The Phi Delta Kappan, Science of Mind, The Methodist Layman, Sunshine, and Ideals.

His column Pertinent Proverbs has been featured in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and in numerous service club publications throughout the United States and abroad. He is one of the most frequently quoted writers in the pages of Quote, the international weekly digest for public speakers.

If you can imagine it, you can achieve it.
If you can dream it, you can become it.
–William Arthur Ward