Category Archives: Painting Challenge

30-Day Creative Gathering, Days 25 – 27

Day 25, 8 x 8 mixed media on paper. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.
Day 25, 8 x 8 mixed media on paper. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.

The meaning of a word,to me,
is not as exact as the meaning of a color.
Colors and shapes make a more definite statement than words.
Georgia O’Keeffe

Day 26, 8 x 8 mixed media on paper. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.
Day 26, 8 x 8 mixed media on paper. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.

Flowers are like friends,
they bring color to your world.
Unknown

Day 27, 8 x 8 mixed media on paper. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.
Day 27, 8 x 8 mixed media on paper. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.

A little flower that blooms in May,
A lovely sunset at the end of a day,
Someone helping a stranger along the way,
That’s heaven to me.

Days 12, 13 and 14 of 30

Day 12, 8 x 8 mixed media on paper. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.
Day 12, 8 x 8 mixed media on paper. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.
Day 13, 8 x 8 mixed media on paper. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.
Day 13, 8 x 8 mixed media on paper. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.

Watercolor over crayon on the vases. Watercolor and pen for the blooms. Digital splatter on the 13th. The colors look more neon than they are in life. I am having too much fun with crayons. Warning of what’s to come. Haha.

Day 14, 8 x 8 mixed media on paper. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.
Day 14, 8 x 8 mixed media on paper. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.

Art is the stored honey of the human soul,
gathered on wings of misery and travail.
Theodore Dreiser

Art is a pigment of your imagination.
Darcy Gerdes

Art is the unceasing effort to compete
with the beauty of flowers,
and never succeeding.
Marc Chagall

Day 9, 10 And 11 of 30

Day 9, 8 x 8 acrylic on paper. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.
Day 9, 8 x 8 acrylic on paper. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.

I’m having too much fun with these. I worked ahead a bit. Which is great, because I lost another day I hadn’t planned on. But I am ready to try something different. Not sure what yet.

As I write, I am sitting here, looking at the empty space where my table should be. All of my supplies are crammed onto the bookcase. Had the carpets cleaned. They always say it will dry in two hours, but it is going on five, and things are still damp. Oyi.

Day 10, 8 x 8 acrylic on paper. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.
Day 10, 8 x 8 acrylic on paper. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.

I wasn’t thinking about 9/11 when I painted this next one. The colors after all are Buff, Cranberry and a sort of Prussian Blue. But it fits, and I decided to post it. The red is brighter in person. I tried to add some light to it in Photoshop, but it changed the color too much.

Day 11, 8 x 8 acrylic on paper. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.
Day 11, 8 x 8 acrylic on paper. © 2021 Sheila Delgado.

All these years later, and that day is still with me. As it is with many of us. I remember I had just finished drying my hair, and my aunt Loretta yelled from downstairs for me to turn my TV on. I did, and then quickly ran down to where she and my Grandmother were watching the news. They were still reporting it as an accident, and then the second plane hit. We were in shock.

We were in California. And we knew, at that time of day, the buildings would be full. My aunt left for work, and I had to finish getting ready to leave as well. At work that day, all anyone could manage was to listen to the news reports, read the papers, and pray.

I usually forget to acknowledge the date in the challenge. So busy just keeping up. But I remember, and say a prayer.

In remembrance of those who were lost. With prayer for families left behind. The survivors, and those whose lives were forever altered. With gratitude for the irreplaceable, who gave their lives in service of others. God grant you peace.

What separates us from the animals,
what separates us from the chaos,
is our ability to mourn people we’ve never met.
David Levithan

On September 11, I always take the day off. 
I want to be in a peaceful quiet place praying. 
It is a day I both mourn and celebrate.
Genelle Guzman-McMillan, 9/11 survivor

When Americans lend a hand to one another,
nothing is impossible.
We’re not about what happened on 9/11.
We’re about what happened on 9/12.
Jeff Parness