Whatever the florists say they mean, yellow roses have come to mean remembranceto me. I am partial to roses; but, especially yellow roses. Because of happy memories, and melancholy reasons, when I see them, the word celebration pops up.

Yellow roses remind me how great the good times have been. They also have been a solace in hard times.

How lucky, then, that Aldi’s frequently offers bouquets for oh so reasonable prices!

Yellow Roses and the Problems Painting Them

For all the joyful connotations the newest bouquet inspired, as their petals dropped, they showed me something else: how quickly life changes and moves.

Then – and I wonder about the timing of this —  I saw the work of a favorite artist, Linda Jacobus. Falling rose petals captured her imagination!  Her work motivated to get out the yellow paint!

Painting Lessons for Life

It’s hard to paint sunlight on yellow flowers – not that painting sunlight on any color is easy.

Still, focusing on how to paint sunlight reminded me of the value of shadows – and deeper colors.

Never fear shadows. They simply mean there’s a light shining somewhere nearby. ~ Ruth E. Renkel

Finding the source of light makes even modest subjects magnificent. See Vermeer, Sorolla,  and Henry Ossawa Tanner — masters of light!

I have a ways to go.

Nevertheless, it’s a grand thing to see how others have painted light it, and a blessed breathing space to have time to try.

Your life is something opaque, not transparent, as long as you look at it in an ordinary human way.  But if you hold it up against the light of God’s goodness, it shines and turns transparent, radiant and bright.  And then you ask yourself in amazement:  Is this really my own life I see before me?  ~Albert Schweitzer

Henry Ossawa Tanner

An age is called “dark,” not because the light fails to shine but because people refuse to see it.  ~James Michener