Amy Boucher Pye

Tag: autumn

  • 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: 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: The fruitfulness of autumn

    By Leo Boucher. All rights reserved; used with permission.

    Autumn is a time of glorious colors, as I was reminded last week when I spent time in the Upper Midwest of America. Glorious oranges and yellows peppered the browns and greens in the tree-line, which I noticed even more because London doesn’t afford such striking colors. I’ve heard that the difference in temperature from warm days to cool nights produces the amazing displays.

    I suppose this can be true in our own lives. When we move from extreme temperatures, whether through grief or change or some other reason, we can look to God to bring forth his beauty in and through us as we walk through the changes or time of testing. If we’ve committed our lives to him, he will be doing this work already, and often we aren’t aware ourselves of how he’s moving within us. But others can see the fruit of the Spirit, the glorious gifts of autumn.

    How today can you commit yourself to God, asking him to reflect his love and life within you? In terms of my dad’s painting, what speaks to you within it?

  • Watercolor Wednesday: Embracing autumn

    By Leo Boucher. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

    Autumn can take me by surprise. Maybe part of that relates to us enjoying the school holidays and then returning to work and school routines with a bang. At least that’s how it was this year, with us going in quick succession over the summer to Minnesota, then a spell at home, and then Wales and Spain, returning the night before school started the next morning. We had reasons for the packed travel schedule, and I knew it would be good but taxing in its own way. And it was.

    So from hot and sunny Spain back to the UK with its days of sunshine morphing into wind and rain. A quick landing as we settled our youngest into her new secondary school, and then the surprise at the end of the first week hearing she’d been given a place at her favored secondary school and the ensuing change. The dust seems to be settling as the days begin to draw in.

    Autumn – and winter – will come, whether or not we’re ready. What do you need or want to do to welcome the season?

  • Watercolor Wednesday: An autumnal farm scene

    By Leo Boucher.

    Growing up in Minnesota, I’d often go with my family to visit my grandparents, both sets of which lived on farms. I took for granted the beauty of the fall colors and the picturesque farms dotted along the way as we drove to Southern Minnesota or Iowa. Now, however, I can bring forth those memories with thanks, also grateful for my dad’s artistry in capturing the moments.

    For those who are celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow, may your celebrations be marked with joy and abundance.

  • Watercolor Wednesday: Days Gone By

    By Leo Boucher.

    This autumn scene speaks to me of an age gone by. A time before electronic devices and everyday mass shootings. A time for reading, gardening, and talking to the neighbors while delivering a homemade cake. But those days had their own challenges, such as people in a minority not having a voice, or cultural expectations reducing the number of creative expressions workwise (can you imagine many people with a so-called portfolio lifestyle back then?).

    Keeping with the autumnal theme, what has died from that era to give us what we have now? What do you wish hadn’t perished? What are you grateful for in this new day?

  • Weekly Watercolor: Beauty or weed?

    By Leo Boucher

    The wild grasses sway in the wind, shimmering against the sunshine. Some think pampas grass is beautiful, while others see it as an invasive weed that is difficult to remove. Sales of the plant have fallen in the UK with the cultural connotation of the plant in the front garden being an invitation to swingers (who knew!?).

    Whatever you think of this plant, here’s an autumnal look at life. Hints of color next to the evergreen tree – the only sign of green to come in the tundra of Minnesota to come, the setting for this painting by my dad, Leo Boucher.

  • Watercolor Wednesday: The movement of autumn

    By Leo Boucher.

    We’re having a taste of summer this week on a quick trip to Spain, but I know elsewhere the Fall feeling is in full flow. My dad sent me a few new watercolors for the season this week, and I love the movement he captured in this one.

    I suppose the meaning of the movement of autumn is towards death and dying, however beautiful the colors are. But out of death can come new life. May it be so in our lives.

  • Weekly Watercolor: The Colors of Autumn

    By Leo Boucher

    We don’t get as many glorious colors in the autumn here in the UK as in Minnesota, so for today I soaked in the yellows and golds as I walked by the brook (as I documented on Instagram), and will enjoy the reds and oranges of the land of my birth via my dad’s art.

    What do you enjoy about this season of fall/autumn?