Let Heaven and Nature Sing

“ Let Heaven and Nature Sing”  original art Melinda Cole Welch 2016 

Let Heaven and Nature Sing - Melinda Welch 2016

 I was determined to get back down into my paint room this Christmas season. I haven't been eager about painting for a while because  I just get so sad without Mom or Marcie painting with me.   There's a print that Myrne Collier gave me that really inspired me.  It's a Christmas card she calls “Three kings.”  In the oil painting, the sky is just full of color and one star shining bright with 3 wisemen looking and pointing.  It’s so beautiful.   I’ve only ever thought about a Christmas night with a dark sky and one bright star so this different colorful take was really exciting.  It was the push I needed to get painting again.  

Myrne Collier-- Three Kings

When I paint I mess around with color and texture.  I put a lot of colorful paint on  canvas, then spray it with water, or wipe some of it away, add texture,  dots, dashes, more color.  I turn the canvas this way and that until something emerges.  I was having fun messing around but I couldn’t get any vision yet, and it was late, so I went to bed.    When I went back down to paint the next day I actually saw two angels in this picture. What was just two blobs of white and yellow paint smeared over red, orange and purple  the night before, was now clearly two angels…my Angels.  It just filled me with so much joy, I actually squealed.  ( You can ask Wayne)    I felt Marcie and Mom's presence in the painting and I felt them in my paint room.  

As we concentrate on Lighting the World this holiday season, I share this painting of light.  I call it, “Let Heaven and Nature Sing.”  It is a night sky full of color and a green hillside with musical notes.   It represents my Angels- Marcie and Mom and the light they brought/bring to my life;  it  also represents all of us as Angels the night of our Savior’s birth. I know we were all there singing, clapping and praising when Jesus was born.  We were the choir of angels.    I am grateful for this night so long ago.  I am  grateful for the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and the light He brought into our world.