Amy Boucher Pye

Tag: artwork

  • Treasuring all these things: Praying with a Painting

    As we move toward Christmas, we can become overwhelmed with plans and carol concerts and baking and shopping and wondering whether or not to host that Christmas meal in these pandemic times. We can overlook the reason for all of this activity – Jesus being born.

    Why not stop for a few moments and ponder the earthly vessel who hosted his earlier life, Mary? I love this painting of my dad’s – one similar to it appears in Celebrating Christmas. To be honest, I can’t remember why we chose that one over this one just now – you’ll have to check out the book to compare the differences!

    You can use this painting as a prompt for prayer. Spend some time asking God to speak to you, perhaps reading through the story in Luke’s gospel of the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary with God’s special invitation. You could open your heart to any invitations God might have for you – perhaps to collaborate with him on a new project or perhaps simply to spend some time enjoying each other’s presence.

    May we like Mary respond to God, saying, “Be it done unto me according to your word.”

    To buy a copy of Celebrating Christmas, see purchase options here.

    [Image – painting by Leo Boucher. Used with permission. All rights reserved.}

  • Praying with a Painting: The leaves of autumn

    By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved.

    At this time of the year, I love thinking about spending time in the upper Midwest, when the color of trees rival those in New England. I sense a crisp feeling in the air and take in the slanted sunlight while enjoying the crunch of a Honeycrisp apple. How good is God!

    Whether or not we’re surrounded with beauty in our physical setting, we can take a mini-retreat and pray with this lovely painting by my dad using the practice of visio divina (sacred seeing).

    • Start by welcoming God to join you in this practice through his Spirit. Ask him to help you calm your mind and your heart to receive him.
    • Gaze at the painting for a few moments, slowly and with care. Notice what your eye settles on, spending a few moments there. What captures your attention?
    • As you interact with the painting, ask God to speak to you. Might he be whispering to you in his still, small voice? Sending you a refrain of a song? A text from Scripture?
    • Respond to God through prayers of praise, adoration, intercession, petition, and so on. You may have moved away from the images in the painting, or not. That’s fine – follow the Spirit. Rest in God’s presence, giving thanks for his love and light.
    • As you draw the exercise to a close, you might want to note in a journal any insights you received or impressions you had.

  • Watercolor Wednesday: The gift of daily habits

    A watercolor with pen painting of farm buildings - a barn and silos - and a farm house, set in green countryside.
    By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved.

    Watercolor Wednesday is back!

    Today I’m thinking about farms, especially those in Minnesota and Iowa, as my parents were both raised on them in these states. I appreciate their work ethic which developed over many years of doing daily chores – the cows simply had to be milked and fed every day.

    How does a daily discipline inform your life? Do you have daily habits that you embrace – not only brushing your teeth and bathing (I hope), but daily rhythms of delight, such as going for a walk or listening to music?

  • Praying with a Painting: He washes their feet

    A watercolor of Jesus kneeling down before one of the disciples, washing his feet. The other disciples surround this scene.
    By Leo Boucher. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

    I so enjoyed working with my dad on our forthcoming art/reflections book, Celebrating Christmas, which will be released this September, that I asked him if he’d consider painting some scenes for Lent. Here’s one that he created for tomorrow, Maundy Thursday, when Jesus takes the role of a servant and washes his friends’ feet.

    A wonderful prayer practice is to study the painting as a prayer, asking God through his Spirit to lead you. Or you could place yourself in the story – what do you see, hear, smell, and experience as Jesus washes the feet? Are you one of the disciples or an onlooker? What do you feel?

    May you know God’s love as we enter into this wonderful, amazing, heartrending story as we approach Easter.

  • Watercolor Wednesday: God with us

    My dad’s been out in his art studio lots these days as he’s creating paintings for our Christmas book (Celebrating Christmas, coming autumn 2021). This is one of his more abstract ones that we’re not including, but I love it all the same. 

    The theme is the Incarnation, God with us, and the mystery of how we receive what’s known as the Real Presence when we receive Holy Communion (or Eucharist). Christ’s body, broken for you; Christ’s blood, shed for you. We receive the gifts of God to be equipped, bolstered, strengthened, and encouraged for our daily lives. 

    What do you see in this painting?

  • Watercolor Wednesday: Just right

    An abstract painting of a stream with the branches of a tree hanging over it.
    By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved.

    When you’re in the midst of a creative project, do you know when to press pause or to stop? 

    Today my dad and I had a zoom call with our publisher on Celebrating Christmas, the book of art and reflections that we’ll be releasing for Christmas 2021. Dad was saying how in creating paintings he has to know when to stop – when to stop fiddling and adding and tweaking and let the piece be. 

    That can be true with writing too; writers and editors can so overwork something that the heart and soul of it seeps out. But I wonder if that stage comes later in a written piece than with the medium of paint. After all, good writing is rewriting and it takes a lot to get to the point of losing the passion. 

    What do think?

    In terms of this fantastic painting, I think my dad has got it just right! He captures my nearby brook so well, and I love his abstract take on it. 

  • Watercolor Wednesday: Those were the days…

    Image: a small-town building festooned with an American flag and bunting in front of a backdrop of autumnal trees
    By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved.

    I’m missing fall in the States this year; the photographs from the upper Midwest in particular are lovely with the bright splodges of red, orange, and yellow. I don’t know that I would have gone back, but knowing that it wasn’t even a possibility makes the longings a bit stronger. 

    I love this cheerful painting of my dad’s. It has a feel of nostalgia, when Main Street was booming and people were civil to each other. I’m saying a prayer that some of that civility could return. 

    How is your autumn going?

  • Watercolor Wednesday: Pause and ponder

    The side of a cabin by the lake, with rocks and weeds in front a line of trees.
    By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved.

    Stop and pause for a few moments and let yourself imagine that you’re settled into a cabin (rustic or not – your preference) by a shimmering lake. You can see rocks and the weeds growing by the water with trees blowing in the breeze in the distance. You take a deep breath and release any tension that’s been building in your heart or your body, giving thanks for these moments of peace. Allow yourself to stop and ponder the wonders of creation, its beauty and peace, as you drink deeply of God’s glory.

    Know that you’re loved and cherished as you enjoy the beauty before you.

  • Watercolor Wednesday: Light and shade

    [A watercolor with ink of a lake in Voyageurs National Park with small dark islands of trees with a dramatic sunset.]
    By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved.

    Paint and ink. The stark black bringing definition against the beauty of the soft watery colors. 

    How is God bringing forth definition in your life, perhaps through things that feel dark and difficult? Where are the soft edges, the splashes of color?

  • Watercolor Wednesday: Beach bliss

    An impressionistic painting of a woman emerging from the waves, bucket in her hand.
    By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved.

    I love this painting, not only for the layers of color, done by my dad through him painting on the back of the glass, but for the memories it brings up in me. When our kids were little, I took them to Florida where we met my parents, with Nicholas coming at the end of the week. My sister surprised us, jolting me with joy in baggage claim as I spotted her, still reeling from the long trans-Atlantic flight on my own with two littles. Later as I lay jet lagged on the beach, she happily built sandcastles with the kids. What bliss. 

    Today the weather in North London is far from that sunny day in Florida – I’m sitting huddled into a fleece, wondering if I need to put on some socks as I look out at the geraniums kissed with rain. Beautiful, but chilly. 

    What fun memories are keeping you buoyed up during these strange times?