Welcome to Sophie's Nature Art!

A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor.

A calm sea does not make an experienced sailor. 

- Franklin D. Roosevelt 

Sailing is a fine art. A small dinghy can perhaps be
sail without much knowledge of an inland waterway.
But anyone who wants to maneuver a larger ship through the world's oceans
needs experience. Of course, he should have knowledge of
of navigation, but above all he should have his ship and
know his team. 

If you want to get a tall ship safely from one port to the next, you need to know which sails your ship has, when to set which sail and when it is time to hoist the sails. This is a science in itself. A good sailor always keeps a cool head. Even in the most severe storms, when huge waves break over the ship, lightning and thunder shake the whole ship and the ship is tossed back and forth like a nutshell - even in this situation, a captain must keep a cool head. One wrong decision can capsize the ship and send the entire crew to a cold grave. However, these skills can only really be learned in such a situation.
You may have learned in theory how to react in such situations, but it is only through experience that you can become a true professional.

But it is not only the sailor who gains experience through rough seas. Everyone experiences storms in their lives that sometimes threaten to knock them down. But what applies to seamanship also applies to us landlubbers. We often see difficulties as problems. Perhaps we should rather see them as opportunities? Perhaps the situations in which we can no longer see the light are the ones that ultimately bring us the greatest blessing? 

It was 2019 when I finally decided to make my dream of sailing come true. Until then, I had never set foot on a sailing boat. But exactly one year ago, that was about to change. Together with a friend who shared my enthusiasm for sailing, we signed up for a day sailing trip on Lake Ammersee. We sailed on a small historic two-master. It was sunny summer weather and there was a light breeze. Even though we didn't set many sails, we got a little insight into this - for us - new universe.

It was a glorious day, and a sunburn on my knees reminded me of it all summer long.
This experience inspired me to create the painting that I would like to present to you today. It was painted for this friend with whom I shared my very first sailing experience.
With this picture I entered a new level of painting. It was so difficult to paint waves. I wouldn't have thought that possible. The sky with the clouds was also quite a challenge. I spent what felt like an eternity on the test painting. The ship itself was quite easy for me. Painting the sails was also challenging, although not quite as bad as the waves and the clouds.
The picture is after a Youtubetutorial was created. It has been given the title of the original artist: “Lost in Sea”. 

This picture was very dear to my heart because it has a touch of adventure. Anyone who has experienced such a storm on the high seas can certainly tell a few stories. It reminds me of stories from times long past. Stories that fascinated me even as a child. In my younger years, I read the life story of a man who lived in the 19th century.

His name was Joseph Bates. Even as a boy, he wanted to go to sea. His heart burned for the sea and everything that lay beyond it. His parents tried in vain to talk him out of this dream. So it was that at the age of 15 he sailed on the “Fanny” from New Bedford, Massachussetts to London. This marked the beginning of 21 exciting years at sea for him. I would like to share one of his experiences with you here: 

“The big, sleek shark followed the cargo ship Fanny all day, always staying on the same side of the ship. The shark was clever enough to stay out of range of the harpoons and although the sailors tried everything to get rid of it, they were unsuccessful. A common superstition at sea was that if a shark followed a ship, someone would either die or go overboard. Quite a few of the men on the Fanny had fallen prey to this superstition.
In the late afternoon, the officer on duty sent the young, inexperienced Joseph up the mast to look out for other ships. Seeing nothing, he began to climb back down. Suddenly he slipped, lost his footing and fell down onto the deck. Just before he hit the deck, he fell onto a rope and instead of falling to his certain death on the deck, he was thrown into the sea. Further and further he sank down into the depths. 

“Man overboard! Man overboard!” shouted one of the sailors who had seen him fall.
The captain and his men rushed to the stern of the ship and searched the foaming wake behind the ship with their eyes. The sailor who had gone overboard was nowhere to be seen. 

The weight of his clothes, especially his boots, dragged Joseph down deep. After what felt like an eternity, he resurfaced, but his clothes were so soaked with water that he couldn't stay afloat. The ship sailed on and his chances of being rescued were vanishingly small.
Fortunately, one of the officers spotted him in the foaming waves and threw a coiled rope to the drowning boy as best he could. Although he was already exhausted, Joseph knew that this was his only chance. With the last of his strength, he caught the rope and clung to it while the men pulled him through the churning water and heaved him onto the deck. 

In his fear of death, Joseph had not thought about the shark, unlike the other men, because Joseph had fallen into the water exactly where the shark had been all day. The sailors looked overboard. The dark figure was no longer there. As they rushed to the other side of the ship, they saw the shiny body of the shark still swimming alongside the ship. It didn't seem to know what a juicy meal it had missed by changing course. 

While the sailors searched for the shark, Joseph was taken to the small cabin that served as a hospital. There he was rubbed dry with coarse towels and wrapped in blankets. As he lay in his hammock, recovering from the experience that almost cost him his life, he thought about his mother. Although he had never read it, he knew that she had put a small Bible in his pocket when he had left home. The thought flashed through his mind that it was very likely that his mother had been praying for him at the exact moment he had fallen from the mast into the cold, choppy sea.” 

- Norma J. Collins, Fascinating Stories of Adventist Pioneers, pp. 49-51