For
She Is the Breadth of the Power of God
Jan
Neal, Curator presented
June 15, 2006
Tulips
in Early Dawn Light I
by Nan Nalder (Mixed media, 18" x 24")
St. Mark’s Cathedral,
Seattle - Washington homenan@serv.net
Painting for me is a prayerful act and opens a door
into spiritual sight. Through painting, I reflect upon
the beauty given to us by our creator and towards which
I am capable of intense feelings and profound contemplation.
I find drawing and painting provide me with an opportunity
to reflect on issues of concern to me – from a
tumultuous past to a hoped for calmer present. I become
totally absorbed in another world and the sense of time
disappears. The act of painting provides me with a sense
of place from which I see beyond the realities of the
surface and go seeking for that which I love in nature
and capture it. The process is one of ever learning
to see anew and understanding through this precious
gift of sight an expanded range of images presented
by nature; a special and particular vision making itself
known through my eyes in which both the seen and the
unseen are recombined in a representative whole.
For me the act of painting provides an opportunity to
study how ordinary things are transformed by light shining
through them; and, to reflect on the relative value
of things and knowing that relative value I can do anything.
I can build upon them – I can set aside those
that I deem important at that moment and select those
that intrigue me. In nature the most vital elements
and activities endure only for a moment – it is
the gesture of that moment that recalls the memory of
the vitality that I set out to capture.
I am deeply drawn to gardens and the indescribable beauty
through the seasons – my own and places I have
been privileged to visit.