I paint in God’s chapel

Many people have asked me why I paint so many sceneries and I usually tell them because they are the easiest to paint, but that’s not the whole reason. I paint them because the outdoors is really my church. It’s the place I can be the closest to God. I am always amazed at the beauty I see and feel while painting in nature.

Painting outdoors is as much a spiritual experience as it is a physical one. Often I do not copy what I see before me but how I feel about what I see. I rarely paint someone’s manicured garden but opt for a natural free feeling I get from painting flowing streams shaded by thick woods. Often I have paddled down Deer Creek from Robison Road and could very easily feel that I was seeing the world as it was hundreds and possibly thousands of years ago. It is very much an experience out in time, yet, it is still here to be enjoyed.

As I moved with the flow of the water, I would feel a great peace come over me. I would be alone, yet, never really alone. My spirit would be fed by the silence that would often be broken by the quacks of a new family I disturbed or the deer would watch me as they drank from the cool water. Yes, this is where I would come to hear the still small voice within. The beautiful green trees lined the walls of this sacred chapel and the open, ever-changing sky would be my ceiling, and the floor fluid with soft ripples.

Some day I hope you can take a short trip through a spiritual chapel. It is, to say the least, a calming and colorful experience. Who knows? You may meet God there and your true basic self and realize you are an important creation of His just as is everything around you.

Harry Croghan is an artist, photographer, writer and teacher. You can send comments to croghan@dragonbbs.com or call (740) 852-4906.