Below is a lovely message I received from the new owner of ROSES IN A STORM and below that is a little background story on the piece and a poem that the painting spoke to me.

"I opened my special package last night.  I didn't do it for a few days because I wanted to pick a moment where there wasn't hustle and I could be alone to soak in the divine moment of connecting with Roses in a Storm.  It was all that I imagined it to be and more.  Inspired beauty and strength and how honored I am...

Your artistry is stunning, captivating, and magical.  And you can quote me on that."

Here's a post from Instagram I wrote while this painting was still in progress - it includes a poem that the painting spoke to me:

I have been working on this painting on and off for a couple years.  It has been many things but at some point last year I was outside in a huge, powerful thunderstorm and saw beautiful rose bushes just getting lashed by the wind and rain.

There was something about the experience and image that got stuck in me and so I think it came out in this painting. 

I thought last week I was pretty close to finishing this- and then this week I had a couple difficult days and tried to paint and it ended up that I basically thought I'd ruined it.  Which helped my difficult days not so much. 

But I've also been witness this past week to other people's resilience-their beautiful strong spirits-in the midst of storms so powerful they can shake anyone's faith.  So when I looked at this painting again today with fresh eyes and my heart feeling tired, raw, washed out, and ...open more than before (in that after a storm kinda way), I asked it [the painting] again, 

"What are you about?"

And the words that came are the words I want to keep in my heart during those storms in life that shake you to your core, and they are words I want others to have to hold onto, to hear and know they are true when they feel like everything is falling apart. 

So, I am not sure what this painting will look like at the end of the day, but I intend that it will have the energy of these words (which I've inscribed onto the canvas and paint) that came as an answer to my question:

"Beauty, Beauty-
you will be okay.

Beauty, Beauty-
you will weather the storm.

Beauty, Beauty-
you are never alone.

Beauty, Beauty-
you are so much MORE than you know.

Beauty, Beauty-
my love for you is without end."

The painting has sold, but if you are reading this and want to keep them in your heart for a rainy day, please be my guest.

Love,

Leah