Its Raining and Pouring

Do you like the rain?  Or do you prefer the sunny warm skies?  Do you live in a place where there is a lot of rain?  Seasons of rain?  Or just a lot of rain lacking days?

I have lived in many different climates, sunny and warm, dry and cold, wet and misty, and even places with all 4 seasons.  But I have to be honest, I haven't been a fan of rain the majority of my life.  Its wet, gets everything else wet, can create mud, and puddles, bring out the frogs, and all kinds of wet loving bugs.  So I'm more happy when its sunny.  But just this year my husband and I have been teaching our kids how to learn to love rain.  We have been letting them dance in the rain, sit on the screened porch during lightning storms with us, walk out side right before the rain comes so they can see and hear and feel the wind that comes with rain.  And let me tell you its helped me gain a better appreciation for rain.

Lightning and thunder make rain more exciting and fun for me, but I no longer complain when it rains.

Well then recently at church I heard a quote that had to do with rain and umbrellas.  I love that quote, here is what it says: "“His commandments are the loving instructions and the divine help for us to close the umbrella so we can receive the shower of heavenly blessings.”

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

With this thought about rain drops being blessings, and the umbrella being the thing that blocks those blessings from God, I knew I needed to paint something that spoke the feelings of my heart.

It took 2 paintings to truly have all my feelings come to life, and I absolutely love them both.

Painting one is a woman in a heavy rain storm.  She put her open umbrella on the ground to catch the rain, and allow her heart to sing with joy as the Blessings from God come to her.  I debated on whether she should stand on the word Blessings, or keep it as is.  And after a week I ended up repainting this, with her standing on Blessings.  It looks great!  What do you think?

 The second painting is a stormy sky with a woman dancing in the rain, receiving her Blessings from God with open arms.  The blessings are raining down on her.  Her face is up turned to allow her gratitude to reach Heaven.  And her umbrella is closed allowing her to feel the love of God through the rain drop Blessings.  I love the rainbow drops and the different sizes, because that's just how Blessings come to us.  No two blessings are the same, received the same, given the same, and some blessings seem bigger to us than others at the time we recognize them.  Lastly, I had to texturize this woman because she is in the middle of dancing, she is moving, the textures I chose represent her movement.