Marias new face II

Oh how much I enjoyed this day. Working with the eyes and mouth of Mary!! I like it so much.  We did not finish it all today, there is still some work to be done tomorrow.
So even if the heat today was extreme, I was content with it all. Went outside and poured half a litre of water down my back - it felt very refreshing.
Now, I will spend the rest of my day in my hotel room, toooo  hot outside.

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I so much enjoy todays lesson in A Course in Miracles:  "Everything that happens to me are lessons God would have me learn".  I only have to remember one thing: there are no exceptions!

"Forgive, and you will see this differently." These are the words the Holy Spirit says to all my trials, my sufferings and my pain.
My answer: I will forgive, and this will disappear.

Marias new face...

ENDELIG da, er vi kommet til det sted i undervisningen, hvor vi skal male Marias ansigt...  Tænkte det ikke skulle være så svært. Og det var det heller ikke.
Men det var en fuldstændig ny teknik stort set.   Nu er vi halvfærdige, og jeg kan næsten ikke vente til at gøre arbejdet færdig i morgen.
Dette bliver muligvis det smukkeste jeg har lavet til d.d.  :))

*****

Finally, we have arrived at painting the face of Mary..  Thought this would not be so difficult, and it was not.
Although the tecnique is totally different from my usual way to paint, I did not find it totally new.
It is difficult to wait until tomorrow - to finish the work on this icon.

This might probably be the best I have ever done.

I will show you when it is finished... Theabove icon is one I painted last year...

Flowers for my teacher

Because you are worth it...

Be mild...

I thought today was going to be - not so difficult. I was wrong!  But I felt so ready, after a good night's sleep and all.  Not so.  It seemed as if I could not even draw one straight line.  And when I did, I wanted to improve it a little bit, and it was all wrong - again.  Theodore helped me out, and I made the same mistake again, it should be just a little bit darker towards the end, and then - ups the dark area got too big.

And when Theodore said he did not understand why I was so good the other day and today could do nothing, I was prepared to wnkjwhiohnfvxszk!!!
Perhaps it is the heat, my age, the noise etc. etc.?  No, the thing is - this is me.  This is my skill, the problem is I want to be perfect, or at least very good.  I push myself,   I am never content, it is as if I am hearing my parents in the background, come on, you can do it,you can do better than this, be good now, work on it...

This will stop now.

I will be mild with myself.  I will not compare myself with a master. I do the best I can, and that will be fine! I will accept myself, just the way I am.

So help me God.

Busy days in Larissa...

This is NOT a vacation I am on.  This is hard work from 9 o'clock in the morning til at least 15.00 in the afternoon, 6 days a week.
After several days painting different garments and also the open book, our teacher thought we might be ready to paint a face.
We will be painting the face of Mary.  But first we will paint her garment, this time in a very dark red colour, lightened with blue.  It is so beautiful!  So the whole day yesterday we spent painting her garment,mainly the part covering her head, nice clean parallel  arches, fading out on one side...
It takes much practice.  I cannot wait until tomorrow where we will continue.

This is not just another ordinary course in iconpainting.

When the course was finished yesterday, Theodore and his  wife had invited us (Violeta and me) for an excursion.  We headed towards the north of Larissa, and our first stop was in a valley, where the river comes from the plains of Larissa and is passing the mountainous area on its way to the ocean.  Here - on the other side of the suspension bridge is the well of Daphne, with wonderfully clear and clean water. Just like in Norway!
We also visited the small old church at this place with a very wonderful old icon of St. Paraskevi, which is said to give miracles to people, especially with eye problems. You can read about the saint here:
http://orthodoxwiki.org/Paraskevi

Leaving this peaceful place we went further north - towards the sea.  I was so much looking forward just to float on my back....

Theodore's parents have a summerhouse just two steps from the beach, so we quickly changed and went for a swim. AHHHH....

They prepared the most delicious grilled dinner for us. (the father at the grill), they are so very friendly.  Interesting it was to listen to Theodore's father tell stories from his own childhood, and his fathers' childhod, stories about fleeing from hostile invaders of their country, bulgarians, turks and germans, and about living as refugees in Jerusalem for years.This is where he learnt to speak english so well, attending an english school for 6 years. Amazing stories.Thank you mr. Papadopoulos!

At 8 in the evening we left for mount Olympos, to visit the  small village Panteleimon. 

I could hear some music as we entered the village - a girl playing the song "I am on the top of the world"  - that is what we were!

 This is the favourite place of Theodore and his wife.  And that I can understand.  It looked like a village from a fairytale.

So, this is where our day ended - in a nice restaurant with a panoramic view of Olympos on one side, and Thessaloniki in the far distance , the lights from the ancient castle and -  the sea.

I am very blessed.

From darkness to light...

The day started with talks about iconpainting - especially in Scandinavia.  It would be such a delight to have Theodore come to Scandinavia! And the best thing about this - is that he is not unwilling to do that.  So now I will have to start making some connections... What a joy!

Today, after we finished the garment of blue and beige colours, Theodore decided we should paint the Book...  Seems so easy, just a book - a little darker in the middle, fading lighter towards the edges.
Now I am beginning to learn - alert when Theodore says something is easy...

With this book, we start with a proplasmos, and make it a bit darker in the middle.  Fading is softly out to the edges. Seems easy!  Theodore tells me I am working too fast.  I thought he meant the strokes were too fast, so moved the brush more slowly.  But he still said I was moving too fast...
Finally I understood - I was moving too fast from the darkness to the light!
I have to move slowly from the dark to the light...

Hm  Reminds me of my life, I have to be patient.  I want the light, I want it now.... but I must move slowly - step by step.  It says so in a Course oin Miracles, every step can only be taken when I am prepared to do it,.
Like my brush - I cannot go further until the work is done where the brush is - not moving too fast forward.
When I learn to be patient, finishing each step before I go on, I will succed.

Dear God, thank you for this blessed day.

Specialness...

I have come to realize that every thing that happens to me, I ask for, and receive as I have asked.  And everything that happens to me is for a reason and is a lesson I can choose to learn.
So far so good.
I also know now that this journey is taken in steps... one at a time.
So here I am in Larissa, thinking I am here to learn iconpainting, by a  great teacher who paints wonderful icons.  And I am here to learn that - but I am being given anothert lesson - on top of that.  I am so lucky!
I have been teaching iconpainting for maybe 4 or 5 years now.  I often hear from the students that I am good.  Good at painting straight lines, good at painting lovely eyes, and goodlooking hair etc. And I observe how much my ego rejoices in all this!
And I do not attack myself for that, I observe it - and leave it, without judging myself.  So far so good.
Today I had another great lesson presented to me.  On working with a particularly difficult part of one of Theodore's own icons, I just lost it.  Could not see the lines, misunderstood what he said, and all went totally wrong.
And then, my teacher told me that I must practice, try to teach my eyes to see, see different shades, darkness and light,   remember I am a beginner, paint straight lines, not too blurred, blurred on one side, not the other...
Of my God, I was just about to walk out of the whole thing. Why?  Someone tried to push me from my comfort zone, and my throne of specialness!!  I knew I wanted to be special, but that it was this big?
It really pissed me off.
So what to do here?  I am so glad I was able to observe this.   But observation is not enough.   I have to show the whole thing to the Holy Spirit, look at it with forgiving eyes, and not judging it.  Just see that this is how I am,  this is the way I react.  And slowly it lost its grip in me, and I could laugh at the whole thing, and I could also tell Theodore and Violeta about my observations.
I am so grateful that they  would listen to me,  it is of great help to get it out in the open so to speak...

So - besides being taught Theodore's way to paint an icon - there are also other great  lessons involved here!
And there is great help for me to read in A Course in Miracles.
When I came home I read the following lesson :

 Light and joy and peace abide in me (lesson 93)

This is the truth bout me