Dear Friends,
God bless you and your loved ones.
Have you ever heard of intuitive painting? There is an excellent book by Flora Bowley called, "Brave Intuitive Painting" that I followed for a whole year in 2013. My goal was to do a painting a day and it was great fun trying to accomplish that, even though I had to slow down for awhile due to other responsibilities.
Intuitive painting is process oriented and the idea is to paint without planning ahead, to allow the splashes and marks to lead the artist into uncharted territory. I ended up painting images that I never would have done if I were relying on my conscious brain to lead me. It expanded my horizons completely.
Now I am on a different path again this year in 2014. I am creating several different series of paintings that I think will appeal to a wider, more popular audience than what I was reaching before. My process is different. I make plans, do research and draw sketches before I start. I work on a number of canvases at a time filling in backgrounds first and then painting my animals in the foreground.
Today I decided to try to do a single painting and to try to finish it in one sitting. It was such a different way of working, I almost forgot how to do it! Before I finished, I was interrupted and needed to give my kids a ride, but I came close to completing it.
During the process I started painting dandelion leaves in great detail from memory and all of a sudden I was a youth again sitting in the grass tying dandelions into a chain for a necklace. It was a wonderful memory.
The detailed imagery had to go because it wasn't working, but I'm glad for the time I spent doing it and the memory it evoked.
If you get a chance to try some intuitive painting, I highly recommend it. The first thing to remember is that whatever you do is right!
Love, Sue
Monday, February 17, 2014
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Hello Again!
Dear Friends,
God bless you and your loved ones!
I'm sorry that I left my blog for awhile to make time for my day job, but now I'm back to being a fulltime artist again and have time to connect. Hooray!
Day jobs are great for buying groceries, but nothing satisfies the soul like painting all day long throughout the work week. When I feel the creaminess of the wet paint gliding from my brush onto the canvas I get a thrill that warms my heart, tickles my brain and puts me into contact with divine thought.
I become a co-creator with Christ watching the creation unfold before my eyes. I am a child again, under the willow tree, peeling the bark off from a branch to whittle it into an arrow for my handmade bow. All is right with the world.
Anyone can enter into this state of mind simply by doodling to music. It's restful and relaxing. I hope that you get a chance to experience it soon.
Love, Sue
God bless you and your loved ones!
I'm sorry that I left my blog for awhile to make time for my day job, but now I'm back to being a fulltime artist again and have time to connect. Hooray!
Day jobs are great for buying groceries, but nothing satisfies the soul like painting all day long throughout the work week. When I feel the creaminess of the wet paint gliding from my brush onto the canvas I get a thrill that warms my heart, tickles my brain and puts me into contact with divine thought.
I become a co-creator with Christ watching the creation unfold before my eyes. I am a child again, under the willow tree, peeling the bark off from a branch to whittle it into an arrow for my handmade bow. All is right with the world.
Anyone can enter into this state of mind simply by doodling to music. It's restful and relaxing. I hope that you get a chance to experience it soon.
Love, Sue
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Website
Dear Friends,
God bless you, your loved ones and your ministries today!
Our son created a new website for my art and if you wish to visit it please click on www.suetrowbridgeart.com
Thank you.
Love, Sue
God bless you, your loved ones and your ministries today!
Our son created a new website for my art and if you wish to visit it please click on www.suetrowbridgeart.com
Thank you.
Love, Sue
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Our Big Brother
Dear Loved Ones,
God bless you, your loved ones and your ministries this week!
Do you have a loved one who has acheived high honors!
Our older brother. David, continues to make us proud at every turn. This time we all got to go to MSU to see him receive an Honory Doctorate in Humanities and deliver a speech at commencement. We are all bursting our buttons with pride.
Being the younger sibling of a brilliant philanthropist has not always been easy, especially in school when teachers expected the same academic acheivement and honorable character as our older brother, but as hard as it was, it was a blessing. He inspired us to reach for the greater good in our work and charity to others.
It would be easy to feel like we are less in comparison to him, but time and life have taught us to simply be proud of him and celebrate his acheivements without diminishing our own. We are a unified group of siblings who cherish one another, even though we tease hard. We can be happy for one another without feeling badly about ourselves.
The dinner we celebrated was great fun, with delicious food, fine wines, and abundant laughter. We retired to finely decorated hotel rooms that were provided by the university and met for breakfast the next morning. Parting was such sweet sorrow.
When I came home, our house was cluttered and I had to clean it right away. Returning to normal life after living in an idyllic world for 24 hours took a little time. But it was lovely to come home to a sweet husband and two beautiful teens who make good choices.
Now it is five days later. We have had a magical time cutting and decorating our Christams tree, especially considering that it is our daughter's first Christmas. We snuggled on the couch under a blanket to watch "A Christmas Story" which is my favorite holiday movie. Phoebe sang in a Christmas Choir concert which was glorious. We all went back to work or school and the house is cluttered again.
It's time to recreate the magic of our home at the holidays, clean, well decorated, with delicious scents coming from the kitchen, and Nat King Cole singing "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..."
Love, Sue
God bless you, your loved ones and your ministries this week!
Do you have a loved one who has acheived high honors!
Our older brother. David, continues to make us proud at every turn. This time we all got to go to MSU to see him receive an Honory Doctorate in Humanities and deliver a speech at commencement. We are all bursting our buttons with pride.
Being the younger sibling of a brilliant philanthropist has not always been easy, especially in school when teachers expected the same academic acheivement and honorable character as our older brother, but as hard as it was, it was a blessing. He inspired us to reach for the greater good in our work and charity to others.
It would be easy to feel like we are less in comparison to him, but time and life have taught us to simply be proud of him and celebrate his acheivements without diminishing our own. We are a unified group of siblings who cherish one another, even though we tease hard. We can be happy for one another without feeling badly about ourselves.
The dinner we celebrated was great fun, with delicious food, fine wines, and abundant laughter. We retired to finely decorated hotel rooms that were provided by the university and met for breakfast the next morning. Parting was such sweet sorrow.
When I came home, our house was cluttered and I had to clean it right away. Returning to normal life after living in an idyllic world for 24 hours took a little time. But it was lovely to come home to a sweet husband and two beautiful teens who make good choices.
Now it is five days later. We have had a magical time cutting and decorating our Christams tree, especially considering that it is our daughter's first Christmas. We snuggled on the couch under a blanket to watch "A Christmas Story" which is my favorite holiday movie. Phoebe sang in a Christmas Choir concert which was glorious. We all went back to work or school and the house is cluttered again.
It's time to recreate the magic of our home at the holidays, clean, well decorated, with delicious scents coming from the kitchen, and Nat King Cole singing "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..."
Love, Sue
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Catching Up
Dear Loved Ones,
God bless you, your loved ones and your ministries this week!
Do you have a loved one with whom you are so bonded that it doesn't matter how long it's been since you saw one another, it feels like no time has passed at all?
That's how I feel when I get together with my siblings. My sister, Debbie and I spent a day together on the prettiest day in October when the colors were at the peak of their glory to drive over to Lake Michigan. When we stopped to buy stain for her deck, I spotted a box of giant red tulip bulbs and bought them on impulse to plant in my garden as a reminder of the lovely day that we were enjoying.
After lunch we stained Deb's deck and still had time to put together a vintage Norman Rockwell puzzle called "Off to Collage" before hosting an intimate dinner for Dad and Bev. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day. The only down side was that Dad was greiving over Max the loyal dog that I gave to Dad when Max was still a puppy, as a surprize.
Lazy me set the bulbs aside for a few weeks until Deb returned in November for another sister puzzle day. Just before she arrived I planted the bulbs as a reminder of that day as well.
Time with my siblings is especially sweet and tender because of the loss we feel from losing our youngest sister in a car accident when she was 33 years old. We understand the value of a sibling; no one else shares all of those memories.
Sometimes I hear people talk about conflict with their siblings and wish that they too understood how important siblings can be. However I do not wish that they go through what we did to discover this knowledge.
I am often reminded of how short and precious life is and how lucky we are to have people in our lives with whom we can share love and joy.
Love, Sue
God bless you, your loved ones and your ministries this week!
Do you have a loved one with whom you are so bonded that it doesn't matter how long it's been since you saw one another, it feels like no time has passed at all?
That's how I feel when I get together with my siblings. My sister, Debbie and I spent a day together on the prettiest day in October when the colors were at the peak of their glory to drive over to Lake Michigan. When we stopped to buy stain for her deck, I spotted a box of giant red tulip bulbs and bought them on impulse to plant in my garden as a reminder of the lovely day that we were enjoying.
After lunch we stained Deb's deck and still had time to put together a vintage Norman Rockwell puzzle called "Off to Collage" before hosting an intimate dinner for Dad and Bev. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day. The only down side was that Dad was greiving over Max the loyal dog that I gave to Dad when Max was still a puppy, as a surprize.
Lazy me set the bulbs aside for a few weeks until Deb returned in November for another sister puzzle day. Just before she arrived I planted the bulbs as a reminder of that day as well.
Time with my siblings is especially sweet and tender because of the loss we feel from losing our youngest sister in a car accident when she was 33 years old. We understand the value of a sibling; no one else shares all of those memories.
Sometimes I hear people talk about conflict with their siblings and wish that they too understood how important siblings can be. However I do not wish that they go through what we did to discover this knowledge.
I am often reminded of how short and precious life is and how lucky we are to have people in our lives with whom we can share love and joy.
Love, Sue
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Lost and Found
Dear Loved Ones,
God bless you, your loved ones and your ministries this week!
It's been forever since I wrote to you and I apologize. I took a job as an activities provider at a memory care facility and have been working a lot. Plus we added a new member to our family!
We now have a foreign exchange daughter from Vietnam named Phoebe and we consider her to be our real daughter, a gift from God, an answer to a deep desire/prayer that I have harbored for decades. I am 56 and I finally got my girl!
She is a beauty beyond compare, brilliant, charming, artistic, musical, hardworking, compassionate, devoted and affectionate. She's more than I could ever hope for in a daughter and I am blessed by every moment that she spends in our home.
Phoebe and Seth get along as though they have been brother and sister for all of their lives. He is 15 and she is 17. He hides behind doors and jumps out at her when she walks through them, making his scariest monster noises to scare the daylights out of her. She screams, chases and threatens in her tiny sweet voice, "I'm going to kill you!" which is the reaction he was hoping to hear.
Anyway, we received our first real snow of the season yesterday and this was Phoebe's very first opportunity to play in the snow. We took photos, built snow sculptures, made snow angels, then played Fox and Geese all of which was great fun! When Phoebe got cold we went in and she discovered that her cell phone was missing, so we went back out to look for it.
As we searched I heard the church bells playing the hymn "Take It to the Lord in Prayer" which gave me hope that God was reassuring us that we would find it. I had already started to pray and was hoping to find it right away. After a half an hour of looking, Seth gave up and went into the house to make lunch.
I offered to buy Phoebe a new phone, but she replied, "No Mom, it's too expensive. I will find it." She then picked up a stick and proceeded to dig through every square inch of snow in our backyard which spans about an acre of land. I was impressed with her dogged determination and was reminded of the tenacity of the Vietnamese people during the war digging underground tunnels and then replanting the trees after the country had been defoliated by Agent Orange.
My love for Phoebe kept me out there looking as the hours passed slowly with my tummy growling and my ears getting cold. Disappointment and frustration swelled in my chest, but was counterbalanced by the joy of spending time with Phoebe in a perfectly beautiful setting. Out of the neighbors woods came the delightful song of the bird called a phoebe which is how our daughter got her name. "Do you hear that bird singing?" I inquired.
She repeated the song "Phoebe, phoebe, phoebe!" then gave me a smile and wrinkled her nose.
"From now on when I hear that song I will think about this moment with you looking through the snow for your phone!" I replied.
I knew how important the phone was, because our girl uses it to record the lectures at school so she can listen again at home to catch the words she missed. Besides, she accidentally shut her old phone in the car door two weeks earlier and her uncle replaced it for her.
I took a break and asked Seth to please pray for us to find the phone and he agreed. When I returned to the backyard a thought came into my mind of where the phone might be, so I went to the spot and swept the area with my feet. My boot struck an object, so I took off my glove to gently retrieve the cell phone from the cold wet snow. Holding it in the air I started to dance and shout "Praise the Lord!"
Phoebe bounded over to check the device to see if it was working and it was, so we flew into the house. I said to Seth, "Tell me the truth, did you just pray?" He nodded and Phoebe hugged him.
Brother got to be the hero, Mom got to be the companion, Sister got to be the recipient of a small miracle. We all got be the storytellers at suppertime when Daddy came home.
Love, Sue
God bless you, your loved ones and your ministries this week!
It's been forever since I wrote to you and I apologize. I took a job as an activities provider at a memory care facility and have been working a lot. Plus we added a new member to our family!
We now have a foreign exchange daughter from Vietnam named Phoebe and we consider her to be our real daughter, a gift from God, an answer to a deep desire/prayer that I have harbored for decades. I am 56 and I finally got my girl!
She is a beauty beyond compare, brilliant, charming, artistic, musical, hardworking, compassionate, devoted and affectionate. She's more than I could ever hope for in a daughter and I am blessed by every moment that she spends in our home.
Phoebe and Seth get along as though they have been brother and sister for all of their lives. He is 15 and she is 17. He hides behind doors and jumps out at her when she walks through them, making his scariest monster noises to scare the daylights out of her. She screams, chases and threatens in her tiny sweet voice, "I'm going to kill you!" which is the reaction he was hoping to hear.
Anyway, we received our first real snow of the season yesterday and this was Phoebe's very first opportunity to play in the snow. We took photos, built snow sculptures, made snow angels, then played Fox and Geese all of which was great fun! When Phoebe got cold we went in and she discovered that her cell phone was missing, so we went back out to look for it.
As we searched I heard the church bells playing the hymn "Take It to the Lord in Prayer" which gave me hope that God was reassuring us that we would find it. I had already started to pray and was hoping to find it right away. After a half an hour of looking, Seth gave up and went into the house to make lunch.
I offered to buy Phoebe a new phone, but she replied, "No Mom, it's too expensive. I will find it." She then picked up a stick and proceeded to dig through every square inch of snow in our backyard which spans about an acre of land. I was impressed with her dogged determination and was reminded of the tenacity of the Vietnamese people during the war digging underground tunnels and then replanting the trees after the country had been defoliated by Agent Orange.
My love for Phoebe kept me out there looking as the hours passed slowly with my tummy growling and my ears getting cold. Disappointment and frustration swelled in my chest, but was counterbalanced by the joy of spending time with Phoebe in a perfectly beautiful setting. Out of the neighbors woods came the delightful song of the bird called a phoebe which is how our daughter got her name. "Do you hear that bird singing?" I inquired.
She repeated the song "Phoebe, phoebe, phoebe!" then gave me a smile and wrinkled her nose.
"From now on when I hear that song I will think about this moment with you looking through the snow for your phone!" I replied.
I knew how important the phone was, because our girl uses it to record the lectures at school so she can listen again at home to catch the words she missed. Besides, she accidentally shut her old phone in the car door two weeks earlier and her uncle replaced it for her.
I took a break and asked Seth to please pray for us to find the phone and he agreed. When I returned to the backyard a thought came into my mind of where the phone might be, so I went to the spot and swept the area with my feet. My boot struck an object, so I took off my glove to gently retrieve the cell phone from the cold wet snow. Holding it in the air I started to dance and shout "Praise the Lord!"
Phoebe bounded over to check the device to see if it was working and it was, so we flew into the house. I said to Seth, "Tell me the truth, did you just pray?" He nodded and Phoebe hugged him.
Brother got to be the hero, Mom got to be the companion, Sister got to be the recipient of a small miracle. We all got be the storytellers at suppertime when Daddy came home.
Love, Sue
Monday, August 8, 2011
Indigo Buntings
Dear Loved Ones,
God bless you, your loved ones and your ministries this week!
This summer I have spotted 3 Indigo Buntings and the only other time I ever spotted one was 30 years ago at Mackinaw Island. I am amazed!
So often I am saddened by the news of climate change and the decrease in the number of butterflies I spot. It is heartening to observe some joyful news!
I love God's creation with all of my heart!
I want to do everything I can to restore and preserve it.
Love, Suzie
God bless you, your loved ones and your ministries this week!
This summer I have spotted 3 Indigo Buntings and the only other time I ever spotted one was 30 years ago at Mackinaw Island. I am amazed!
So often I am saddened by the news of climate change and the decrease in the number of butterflies I spot. It is heartening to observe some joyful news!
I love God's creation with all of my heart!
I want to do everything I can to restore and preserve it.
Love, Suzie
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