Completeness

Completeness (Watercolor 16X20)

If I mention the name, Stephen Quiller, you will probably recognize it. He is an artist from Creede, Colorado, who has made it big locally and is in the international art market He has produced a line of art supplies; from palettes to paints and from DVD’s to week workshops. He is also a part of Northlight Books.


I recently received his catalogue. His painting was on the front cover. On the inside cover, there was a black and white photo taken of him in 1970. He was holding a painting with a similar mountain which was on the front cover. He commented, “I remember this painting and a series of similar works that I completed in the ‘70s while I lived in the mountains…Now I realize that it took these early paintings to help develop this new “View from the Air” series. Thus, the painting on the cover was over 35 years in the making!”

Quiller also commented he painted the mountains from the bottom looking up, now he has had the opportunity to view it from a puddle jumper flight from Denver to Alamosa, Colorado and he has seen it from the top.

We are all in the making. I wonder sometimes if I will ever be completed, yet I know I am and will be. I have the end in view. It has taken many mistakes, trials, and ups and downs to see the view from above. I am getting a clearer view.

Recently in a small group, we talked about how important our history is. If we lie about our history, or we can’t accept what happened to us in the past, we will not accept our present and we will not have an end in mind.

That’s a bold statement. It is interesting to me, that our past is so vital to us, to know it is all in our making for today. No matter, the good or bad of it, without accepting our past, we will not be established in who we are today or in our future.

If our history; whether it is our country, based on godly principles; our faith, based on the crucifixion and resurrection, or our individual lives with past drama and misunderstandings, we need our past. If our history is changed we will not know who we are and where we are going.

From above we can see clearly where we have come from and where we are going. It takes faith to embrace what we do not like, and trust it is what we need to become who we are.

Just like a painting, every time I paint, I draw from all the years I have practiced and failed. I have learned from my mistakes. And yes, in the completion of a painting, I sign my name, date it and believe it is the best I can do. I too look back like Stephen Quiller, and know the paintings I paint today have been in the making for 40 years.

Final Brushstroke! We have all been in the making, ourselves and our work and we are all being made complete daily.

This painting is one of my very favorites. It is the incompleteness that makes it complete. The roof line is not parallel, the pond is just there, there is a lot of white. One time someone said to me, "it takes a lot of courage to call it finished when it is isn't." In my book, this painting is the best one I have ever done. Did I say, I love it?