Color Me Beautiful

By Hazel Holland

I love painting impressionistic watercolor flowers and birds.

 I'm so thankful God gave us so many colors to choose from. ♥

Winter Wonderland

By Hazel Holland

I would much rather look at snow scenes from the comfort of a warm house or a warm car than from actually being out in the snow and feeling the cold.  I remember when I painted this watercolor years ago I could see the snow on the distant mountains, but I didn't have to crunch through it to get to my car.  But that is soon going to change.

I just came home from spending a wonderful Christmas with my family where the winters are cold and snow isn't just reserved for the mountains.  So next winter I will have to get use to leaving the comfort of my warm home and crunching through snow to warm up my cold car. 

This will be a big adjustment.  It's been 37 years since I left the cold winters of Ohio and moved to California, and even more since I left Michigan and England.  But the four seasons will be a welcome change even though I don't relish the cold winters...

I will enjoy watching new plants push their way through melting snow as they offer their natural beauty to Springtime. The less humid summers with two-digit temperatures is another reason to make this move.  The vibrant fall colors won't just be in the mountains, but along the streets, and hopefully in my own back yard.

By the time winter comes around again I hope I will be ready to embrace the snow that can make winter a wonderland! 

Down By the Old Mill Stream

By Hazel Holland

When I painted this watercolor of an old mill scene many years ago it was to try and capture the mood of this beautiful rural setting.  I didn't want to forget the charm and quaintness of the way things use to be.  It reminded me of idyllic times in the past when life seemed to be more carefree and less complicated.

And a part of me wants to return there often.  I want to breathe deeply of the fresh air that I feel on my face.  I want to sit under the old oak tree with a good book, and listen to the old mill stream lap at my feet.  Seems there was no need to hurry back then.  Time stood still forever.

Our memories of yesterday down by the old mill stream seem to rejuvenate our spirits.  We recapture our forgotten youth as we watch the mill wheel slowly turn and remember our first kiss.  We know it was summertime back then because the leaves on the oak tree were in full bloom... and we were in love. 

But now the leaves have fallen.  The oak tree is bare and winter is here.  We preferred the summer.  But the seasons change.  And with each new season comes new memories.  The old memories will always be there as a foundation upon which to build the new.  

But we cannot live our lives in the past.  We must live in the present.  Although once we were in love and forever young, now love has come to maturity.  It has more meaning in our lives than a fleeting kiss down by the old mill stream  To love others is a choice.

We have grown wiser and stronger like that old oak tree.  Our ability to love others has grown deeper as we choose to love them more for their sake and less for our own.

We will weather the storms of life far better if we choose to live each moment in the present.  I know that we all take trips back to the old mill stream.  But when we do, tomorrows dreams remain waiting to be experienced...  And we can only experience them as we are present in our lives.  Living in the past we can never hope to fulfill the destiny God has for us now. 

So let's take the best from all our yesterdays and bring them into the present.  For it is in the present that God chooses to dwell in us and we choose to live in the Spirit.  It is in the present that we experience His joy...not back at the old mill streams of our lives.  No matter how beautiful and peaceful we remember those mill streams to be, they are nothing compared to the joy that comes with living in His presence now.

Erasing Dark Shadows

By Hazel Holland

"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones." Proverbs 17:21-23

This watercolor painting that I painted of a Michigan sunset is a reminder of how I struggled to keep smiling as I faced being confined to a TB hospital for two months back in August of 1967.  It actually amazes me now that I had the determination to paint such bright colors when I was feeling anything but cheerful. 

As I look at the jagged edges of the dark shadows on the mountains I remember how they seemed to parallel my gloomy thoughts and unspoken fears back then.  Now the lines seem too harsh, but back then they clearly reflected the stark reality of daily life.

Although some patients told me that they had been in this hospital forever, I was not going to be one of them.  Others had died in there, but I would live to tell about it.

So in order to try and bring some kind of semblance of balance to the dark shadows of my doubts and fears, I decided to paint the most warm and cheerful fall leaves I could imagine in the foreground of my painting.  Perhaps it would help to dispel my angst with hope.  So each time I would have those dreadful thoughts of being confined to this hospital for eons, I would add a few more orange and yellow leaves to the trees in the foreground.  

As you can see from the density of those orange and yellow leaves, I struggled a bit with anxiety.  But gradually the focus of my thoughts shifted away from myself and my own fears to the needs of the people around me.

I began to wake up each morning with a renewed sense of purpose.  I would make the best of my two month "vacation" because now I had a mission.  I would paint my heart out, and do whatever it took to help erase the dark shadows from other patient's hearts. Instead of spreading around more gloom, I would bring them hope and cheer.  And with God's help I think I did.