Pastels

This year, I am in AP Studio Art. I'm not all that artsy. Seriously, if what I could produce half of what I see, it'd be fabulous. But I still love art, it relaxes me, and is one of my favorite outlets.

However there is one medium I hate. Pastels.

Seriously, my freshman year I used them and they were AWFUL. They smudge easily, which is nice to blend but is horrible for your clothes, and for the grimy fingerprints I got everywhere. For my perfectionist personality, it was quite frustrating.

Fast forward 3 years. I walk into the first day of AP Studio Art, the smell of fresh paint still lingered in the air, my familiar classroom and teacher greeted me.

Basic classroom instructions were given, and we were assigned our first art project.

Sketching apples.

With pastels.

Peachy. (No pun intended.) ;)

Pastels literally burst with color. Their chalky residue gets over everything.

BUT, the more I worked with pastels, the easier it became. The stark color contrasts became easier to blend and make a beautiful piece. The colors smoothly and tranquilly mesh and build upon themselves. But I have to be extremely careful I don't pick up residue and put it anywhere I don't want it.

Then I really began to see myself as the pastels. I have very different colors and contrasts in my life that are opposite, but when I give it time, God builds the different things in my life like colors of pastels, and then slowly begins to blend them into a beautiful crescendo.

When I mess up and over-blend or get my fingerprints as I try to rip the piece from his hands, He never rips me up.

He still gets the piece to look the way He wants it, but it takes more time.

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you." -Psalm 32:8

(Here's my pastel on 3 scallops shells up close =))