Thursday, November 28, 2013

Abundant Blessings

Created on an iPad by S. Glerum
Drawing or painting a cornucopia is straightforward and relatively easy. Outline a crescent-shape, fill it with color and roundish things, and "voila!"

Each class day, my Saturday art teacher, Della Bushnell of Aberdeen, Wash., assembled an elaborate still life for us, her middle-school and high-school students. Mrs. Bushnell's medium was oil, so the still life remained in place for many weeks--until all her students hit the mark she set for each.

Last year's cornucopia, also created on an iPad


In November the subject matter would always be the same: a large cornucopia (that had seen better days) filled with winter squash and embellished with other produce that she would keep in her fridge and add back in during the next several lessons. (Grapes were a favorite--she loved showing us how to add the little highlight to make them look delectable.) When she pronounced us finished with our oil paintings, we were free to draw the same subject in pastels. Hearing Mrs. Bushnell say, "I think you're done--I like it!" was a little piece of heaven for the budding artist.

Maybe it was those classes that made me love the image of a cornucopia--abundance spilling forth onto a metaphorical world of plenty. Lucky us if we can relate to that. And lucky us at our house this year. We have many blessings, the biggest of which is Hubby's return to good health.

Below is an excerpt from an e-mail received this morning--from one of my kids to whom I sent the iPad painting.

I love the cornucopia as an image... I very much associate the image with you and love that it speaks to you and that you passed your appreciation of it on to your children...

Yes, feeling appreciated and loved might be the best blessing of all. Happy Thanksgiving!


2 comments:

Quiltsalad said...

I too took lessons from Mrs. Bushnell. Probably from 1955 to 1960, I so very fondly remember those cornucopia's and also the old lantern's and glass beach balls. I was always in the Saturday afternoon class my parents took turns bringing me to Aberdeen from Elma. I still to this day remember having to go up into the kitchen to clean out my brushes and trying to figure out how to do it in that cluttered space. My mom was one of those super neat people but not nearly as much fun as "Mrs. Bushnell"!

Quiltsalad said...
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