The Beauty of the Horse Shines Through the Darkness
Depending on the type of painting, I don’t always keep scraps from my planning process, things like original color tests, rough sketches, and experiments of different styles of compositions. Most of those items make it no further than the wastebasket. But when it comes to painting horses, I like to keep most everything, even rumpled papers from my initial ideas and inspirations.
When I first sketched this perky pony, I thought no further than rendering it in pastel pencil. After it filled my page, I knew I wanted to try it in paints. I carefully transferred the design onto tissue paper, and then flipped over the tissue and traced it onto a canvas for painting.
Most people wouldn’t think that much work and effort would be involved; they probably imagine me sketching the horse right onto a blank canvas, and then, filling in the background around it. That’s simply not what happened. I wanted to paint a fitting background first. I only “let the horse into the pasture,” so to speak, when the trees and field-like background were well suited! A couple attempts later, I had a pasture of wild mustard ready for my dapple-grey pony.
After the horse was at home on the canvas, I admired his graceful lines around the legs and neck. I decided I wanted the viewer to be as entranced with the beautiful lines of the horse as much as I was. Taking a contrasting bit of violet, I outlined the places I wanted the viewer to not miss. With the yellow of the wild mustard flowers, the violet seems to buzz the viewer’s eye, making our attention focus on the elegant lines of the horse—lines that God built into every equine across the ages.
The dappled coat in the glow of the afternoon sun reminds me of how God draws beauty out of the shadows we all experience. When God wants to make others look at his work in our lives, he will lay the contrast of his golden grace against the dark tones of our suffering. The contrast makes people curious; they even wonder how we can be happy in the midst of sad surroundings. But when you put light up against darkness, people can more easily see a clearer view of God’s all-sufficient grace.
The in-between stages of this painting—the sketch and the crumpled tracing paper, even the background—they all speak to the process of bringing something lovely to completion.
We may not yet see how God has brought about great beauty in our lives, but we can be “confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).
And on that day when we finally see, we will linger entranced at the beauty of God’s grace in our lives.
-Joni Eareckson Tada
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