Welcome to Sophie's Nature Art!

The year is 2018. It was a Sunday afternoon in late summer.
This afternoon was a milestone in my personal art history. 

On Youtube I had the channel of Mustafa Jannan discovered. There are some videos for absolute beginners in acrylic painting as well as some “10-minute paintings” for which I
but usually took much longer. The very first thing I tried was a sunset scene in the African savannah. I was amazed at the result. Motivated by my first “success”, I painted the picture of Tuscany. Immediately afterwards, I discovered the video with the flower meadow, which I painted straight away. I was thrilled with the results! I hadn't expected to be able to recognize what I had “painted”! 

It didn't seem that difficult to me, although in retrospect I find these “pictures” very imperfect. But the old saying is true: “No master has yet fallen from the sky”! 

At that time, I didn't have a proper painting surface, which is why my first pictures were painted on old cardboard. I wanted to see if this was really something for me before I invested money in paints, brushes and painting surfaces. 

I spent an entire vacation week in September taking my first landscape pictures in Acyrl. The weather was actually nice and I wanted to go hiking in the mountains, but my new enthusiasm kept me glued to YouTube and the colors. 

There were kind people who supported and encouraged me. Shortly afterwards, I ordered my first brushes, acrylic paper and better acrylic paints. This made painting even more fun. The quality of the paintings also got better and better.  In the gallery you can see the pictures in order.

For Christmas, friends and family members received a framed, self-painted picture with a Bible verse on it.  They are the pictures with the text from Philippians 4:4: „Rejoice in the Lord always!“ I went into mass production, so to speak.

Within two or three months, the quality of the images had improved significantly. I was surprised at myself and was always on the lookout for new challenges. 

Everything in life is like that. Some beginnings seem small and inconspicuous. For example, a small seed: it falls into the ground. Nobody notices it and yet this small seed becomes a small plant. Depending on the species, this small, delicate green can grow into a fragrant rose or a mighty tree. However, this plant does not grow by itself. It absorbs sunshine, water and nutrients from the soil around it. If it did not do this, it would not be able to grow. 

I find it hard to believe that this principle of growth came about by itself. If you want to find out more, I recommend the following series of lectures, starting with this video. 

I believe much more that an intelligent being created this principle. It takes many factors to make a plant grow. Only when all the conditions are met can a small seed become a large tree. 

So the same principle was put into us humans. We are allowed to learn. Learning is also a kind of growth. We learn to walk, speak, write, do arithmetic and various other skills. Only learning gives us meaning in life. We absorb the influences around us from our environment and use them to improve our quality of life. We will never stop learning. We live in a world that is full of beauty and surprises. By learning, we can understand it better and better and gain deeper insights. That is the beauty of life in this world.  

Since I started painting, I see creation with completely different eyes. I used to look at clouds and think they were white. But when I started painting, I saw that even a “white” cloud often contains a lot of gray. This is due to the play of light and shadow. The side facing the sun shines brightest white, while the shadow side is gray. This creates three-dimensional effects - in nature as well as in painting.

My amazement at the beauty and complexity of nature astounded me. We take nature and our lives for granted. But we are actually surrounded by wonders. Be it the little flower on the windowsill, the water that gives us life or the little bird that cheerfully warbles its little song. Everything is so complex and beautiful that our cleverest minds have only just scratched the surface to decipher the mysteries of these creatures. 

For me as a therapist, the human body is a very special marvel. The anatomy and the connections in our bodies are incredibly complex, so much so that your head starts to spin when you start looking at them. 

Each of us is a very special miracle. Every person is unique. Every person was created for a purpose. A dog cannot enjoy the beauty of the sunset.

It does not evoke any emotions in him. Why can we feel beauty? This feeling is essential, especially in art. If things didn't arouse emotions in us, we wouldn't need paintings, music or other forms of art. It seems to me that someone has endowed us with this special ability that no other living being on this earth possesses.  Life only comes to life through the perception of beauty, otherwise we would only exist.

In the next post I'm going to introduce you to my first two “commissioned paintings” that I painted for two loved ones for their birthdays. These were “real” paintings on a large canvas.