Giving Thanks

Eucharist [thanksgiving] is the state of the perfect man. Eucharist is the life of paradise. Eucharist is the only full and real response of man to God's creation, redemption, and gift of heaven. Alexander Schmemann

My favorite mug. My sister Melissa gave this to me for Christmas 27 years ago. I drink my morning tea from it every day!

My favorite mug. My sister Melissa gave this to me for Christmas 27 years ago. I drink my morning tea from it every day!

One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp was published in 2010. It was on the New York Times best sellers list for 65 weeks -- a book about Jesus!  Christianity Today counted Ann Voskamp among the 50 women most shaping culture and the church when One Thousand Gifts was in the limelight. Ann and her farmer husband are Canadian, raising their six kids on their family hog farm. (They have recently adopted a little girl from China, so that makes seven). Ann has been blogging for years. I would recommend visiting her blog site: www.aholyexperience.com if you are in need of a blast of wisdom and joy from above.

In One Thousand Gifts Ann takes the reader on her breathtaking journey out of darkness (depression, confusion, isolation, shame and guilt) into the marvelous light of God's personal love for her. A friend had challenged her to count 1000 beautiful moments as she went about her days. In her quiet time alone with God early in this challenge, Ann came across the word Eucharisteo in Luke 22:19. Jesus, in His final hours, when everything in His life pointed to utter failure, took bread and gave thanks.  Through the book Ann shares her growth in coming to understand the depth and breadth of the word eucharisteo as she learns to apply it to her own thinking and life, counting moments of beauty in the ordinary. #1 morning shadows across old floors, #2 Jam piled high on toast, #3 Cry of blue jay from high in the spruce, #4 Leafy life scent of the florist shop, #5 Wind flying cold wild in hair, #6 Earthy aroma of the woods...

Psalm 100 (Message Translation)                                          

On your feet now -- applaud God!

Bring a gift of laughter,

Sing yourselves into His presence

Know this: God is God, and God, God.

He made us; we didn't make Him.

We're His people, His well-tended sheep.

Enter His courts with the password: "Thank You!"

Make yourselves at home, talking praise.

Thank Him. Worship Him.

For God is sheer beauty,

All generous in love,

Loyal always and ever.

[Even in the midst of the most severe of trials]

 

 

Deep, Contented Joy

Deep, contented joy comes from a place of complete security and confidence in God -- even in the midst of trial.  Charles Swindoll

God speaks through the timing of things -- loud and clear!  This past Saturday, I attended my nephew's graduation from Washington College in Chestertown, MD. It was a cool, overcast day with 0% chance of rain -- perfect for the outdoor ceremony held on the central lawn.

After the ceremony, we wound our way along back roads to a hunting lodge not far from Chestertown, where Stuart's parents, my cousin Debbie and her husband Ed, were hosting a luncheon for family and friends. I say nothing happens by random chance. God makes Himself known to us through every detail of life. He speaks through the timing of things!

The road we took out of Chestertown was very familiar to me. At 3:00pm on the afternoon of December 15, 2001, I was struck from behind by a drunk driver on that road while riding bikes with my daughter Margie. I emerged from a 10 day, medically induced coma on Christmas Eve.  Where was I?  I couldn't move!  My face felt funny and I was in a lot of pain. We were supposed to be going to Vermont to spend Christmas with Lee's brother. I had no memory of the accident.Talk about being completely turned upside-down.

I was told the impact of my body had shattered the windshield of the car that had hit me, and that the driver had left the scene, leaving me to die. But God intervened in an amazing way, and I was flown by helicopter to the Shock Trauma center in Baltimore, in critical condition. I had many broken bones, and Lee brought in a photo of me so the doctors would know how to reconstruct my face. I spent  a year in recovery, a year dotted with periodic follow up surgeries. Through this horrific experience, we came to know God as the miracle working God He is. We heard about it over and over from the doctors and nurses who tended to me and I knew it for myself.  To look at me now you would never know I had once been a broken, bloody mess left to die on the side of a country road.

So there I was, driving by the site of that accident after attending a graduation ceremony. Many people refer to death as graduating to higher glory. Against all odds, I didn't graduate on December 15, 2001, just two months after 9/11. I lived to declare the works of the Lord (Psalm 118:17)

On April 24, 2016, Lee graduated. I know he is enjoying all of the wonders of heaven. Jesus showed us that resurrection is real -- After his crucifixion, He rose from the dead and walked the earth for another 40 days. He had a new supernatural body. With scars still on His hands and feet, he was able to walk through walls. Lee has a new supernatural body outfitted for heaven. and is probably walking through walls.  

And I am still here, continuing to declare the works of the Lord. God has put a fresh urgency on my heart. We will all be graduating. We never know when. Our graduation could come suddenly, without warning, as it did for the 3000+ people trapped in the twin towers on that clear September morning back in 2001, or in any of the shooting sprees and other acts of terror happening with an ever increasing regularity. Or we can be made very aware of our mortality through the slow grind of cancer. I ask myself these question: is my life preparing me to graduate, whenever that day may come. Am I living in complete security and confidence in God, even in the midst of trial. Am I fully alive in the present?

From now on, I will be making daily blog posts, sharing how God makes Himself very real to me in and through the details of my life as a widow. (I never liked that word - it reminds me of the black widow spider.  But I am not a black widow, I am a deeply contented widow full of the light of Christ). 

Building and encouraging faith in others was the thrust of my 36 year marriage to Lee. This is the legacy I will be upholding through this blog. It was the foundation upon which everything else in our life was and continues to be built.

I just now checked the time on my computer.  It's 9:11.  Thank you Lord for underscoring the urgency with which I write this morning.

Tend Your Creative Garden

 

When I walk in a carefree way, without straining to get to my destination, then I am living in the present. And it is only then that the creative power flourishes.                                                   Brenda Ueland, Author of If You Want to Write.

Two Saturdays, June 10 and 17, Margie Boynton will be offering instruction on drawing and painting in watercolor at Lilac Hill. Lunch provided. Cost for instruction and lunch $35/day. Enrollment for instruction limited to 12. RSVP by June 1, Margie.boynton@gmail or Martha.boynton@yahoo.com. or call Martha by phone (410) 263=6336. (Leave a message if no answer)

Schedule for each day:                                                                                                                        10-12 Drawing simple still life outdoors                                                                                                     12-1 Lunch and creative fellowship                                                                                                        1-3 Painting the still life in watercolor

Writers are welcome to come for a day of quiet in a garden setting and to join for lunch. You can bring your own lunch or partake of the lunch we provide for $5.  If you would like to join us please RSVP by June 1.

The Goodness of God

When you’re overwhelmed with the goodness of God to you

— you overflow with the goodness of God to others.

                                                               Ann Voskamp

     ~~ Author of One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

            The goodness of God: those moments in life when we sense that God has a very good, very clear plan and is orchestrating every minute detail from His throne room in heaven. That serendipitous moment when the lives of two friends who haven’t seen each other for years intersect on a street corner at the dawning of a fall day, that chance meeting exploding into “a brilliant idea.”  When two friends who haven’t been in touch for over a year write an email at the exact same time and they cross in cyber space over the Atlantic, both  receiving them on the same day. Those moments when we feel God enfolding us in His arms of love and care. 

            Lee and Betty Knupp were colleagues. They shared a passion for art. Betty taught art history classes through the Anne Arundel Community College, Ginger Cove and at local senior centers for over 25 years. She gave her all and had a strong following of students. Whenever she taught on Impressionism she would invite Lee to come demonstrate and share his life as a fine art painter.

            At the second reception for the Lee Boynton: Light of Life show, a retrospective of Lee’s work at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts last October, Betty approached Margie with her characteristic warm smile and a friendly air of determination, like she had something important to discuss. Margie had been on Betty’s mind for some time. She told Margie she would be turning 70 on her next birthday and felt it was time  to retire from the teaching. She asked Margie if she would be interested in taking over her classes and bus tours. “I will mentor you through this process,” she said, “Don’t worry, I won’t let you fail.” The goodness of God!

            A month after Betty extended this kind offer to Margie, the Community College called Margie. The teacher for 3 ten week classes on painting in watercolor had had a family emergency. They were desperate for a replacement. It turned out the teacher Margie would be replacing was another good friend of ours. Margie was an oil painter, she had never painted in watercolor before. But she had assisted her father with his classes, especially toward the end, and she had his book Painting the Impressionist Watercolor. She said yes, and then dove into teaching herself to paint in watercolor.

         Between the three classes that started on January 3, 2017, Margie had 43 students, me being one. What a great way to start the year!  Both Margie and me saying “YES” to life!  I had set a goal of learning to paint in watercolor so I could use Lee’s paints and paper and now I would be receiving instruction from my daughter as she was donning her father’s teaching mantle. On the first class she humbly explained to her students that she was learning right along with them. Over the ten weeks of the class, I saw Lee’s talent for teaching beginning to blossom in our daughter. I pictured Lee looking down from heaven with a big smile on his face!

            Margie took on Betty Knupp’s teaching mantle this spring. She has been teaching a six week class on contemporary watercolor artists at Ginger Cove and through AACC at the Edgewater senior center. I have attended the class at Ginger Cove. Margie has prepared the material for her classes under Betty’s guidance, covering the work of Audubon, Homer, Saergent, Hassam and others. Last week she featured her father as a notable contemporary watercolor artist. She spoke about how he had pioneered the application of Claude Monet’s theories of color and light to the watercolor medium and showed examples of how he had done this through his work.

            Betty would organize bus tours to art museums in D.C. and other locales based on the contents of her classes. Margie will be leading her first bus tour to the National Gallery of Art in D.C. on May 16. Forty two students have registered for the trip. They will have a special viewing of many of the watercolors Margie has covered in her classes from the archives.

Oh — and good news! My father saw the first hummingbird come to the feeder at Lilac Hill yesterday!

  By Martha Boynton         

           

Beauty for Ashes

The winter is past,

The rain is over and gone,

The flowers appear on the earth,

The time of singing has come.

                        Song of Songs 2:11   

            Today I dug out some impacted day lilies from the garden by the red house. I have kept up that little stretch of my mother’s garden on Lilac Hill. At the height of summer bloom, my father can see the tall fuchsia colored phlox and the elegant pink and white asiatic lilies out the window from his chair.  And he monitors the comings and goings at the hummingbird feeder in the midst of it all.   

              My father, Bob McWethy, says extreme old age is an adventure like none other. He turned 97 on his last birthday, and continues to make the most of every blessed day.  We made the decision as a family that both our parents would live out their days on Lilac Hill, the property where my mother grew up.

                The sunny orange day lilies light up the garden when they bloom in June, but they are aggressive and tend to take over. The clump I dug out made room for a delicate pink bell like Hispanica and two shy little yellow primroses that had escaped their garden beds and been in the path of the lawn mower. They will bloom next spring.

            Margie has taken on the gardens up by the “main house,” as my father says. (I call it the “big house,” but he says that is entirely inappropriate. The Big House is where you go to do time.) The other day, when I was over with my father’s dinner, Margie brought me up to see a fun discovery she had made.  She pointed out a new little sprig from “the quintessential rose” that had planted itself a foot from its parent. I call it the quintessential rose because the abundant blossoms on the parent rose are the picture of a perfect rose — a pleasing blend of pink and peach, soft like a summer sunset. And the sweet fragrance of that rose — you want to sink your nose in one of those blossoms and never take it out! My mother, Margie's grandmother Liz, had propagated that rose from a cutting she had taken from the old gnarly rose by the garage at my house in town years ago.

           We often hear of the garden as a metaphor for life.  Gardens speak and teach. My mother was a gardener and a poet. She died on October 11, 2014. Many of the flowers and bulbs she planted in her gardens still grace Lilac Hill with a copious array of bloom spring through fall.  And her poetry continues to leave its delightful mark on the world.

            Lee was an artist. He was passionate about art and doing what God created him to do. His paintings continue to live on, much like my mother’s flowers and poems. Margie was so excited to show me the little sprig from the rose that had planted itself. That was her, next to her grandmother, next to her father, carrying on their creative legacies through her art and, now teaching.

            It’s spring! The winter is past! The time of singing has come.  Margie and I would like to share the fruit that will continue to come forth through our family as we pursue our creative passions. We hope our regular entries will inform, encourage and inspire you in tending your own creative gardens.

By Martha Boynton

Continuing the Legacy - Join us for a Painting Day at Lilac Hill

by Margie and Martha Boynton

We had an outstanding turn out for the Lee Boynton: The Light of Life exhibition — over 140 people signed our guess book! We had a lot of wonderful feedback from the show. Many people asked if we could do another exhibition.  Several former students expressed how much Dad’s classes influenced their lives and spoke about getting together to paint. 

In response to this, we will be holding a painting day on November 19 from 10:00am - 2:00pm at Lilac Hill, our family property on Weems Creek. During this events, Margie Boynton will provide exercises and instruction in the basics of identifying values and applying color through blocks studies or painting simple still life arrangements.  Her instruction will be based on her father’s teaching materials. More advanced students would be encouraged to paint the landscape on their own. Bring a bag lunch and a snack to share. Beverages and homemade cookies will be provided.

 

Date: Saturday, November 19th, 10am - 2pm

Where: 3 Weems Creek Drive, Annapolis, MD 21401(Park in the grass to the left of the driveway, marked with a sign)

RSVP: Please email Margie Boynton by November 16th if you are interested in attending this event. margie.boynton@gmail.com

fee: $25 per person 

Enrollment limited to 12

Beyond the Light of Life Exhibition:

As a family of artists, we have been developing our vision for continuing the Lee Boynton Legacy.  We will be posting information about future shows and events on the website (leeboyntonlegacy.com), and adding points of interest as they come along. 

 

 We would like to see the blogging element on the website become a vehicle through which we can encourage creative people to unlock and develop their artistic potential.  We hope to create a safe place where former students or other emerging artists, poets and writers can exhibit their work and tell their stories. Lee was all about that, and we’d like to keep that light he carried alive and burning brightly.

Margie has been collecting some of her Dad’s teaching materials, block demos and color lessons. She would like to create a study guide for artists using this material as well as adding some material of her own. 

We welcome any suggestions or ideas readers might like to share.

Fishermen and Sunlight - memories of my father

by Margie Boynton

Today, October 26, is my Dad’s birthday. I thought a great way to celebrate this day would be to share some of my memories growing up with an artist Dad. 

Dad always had some mammoth project going on in our living room. He would be stapling large sheets of damp watercolor paper to stretcher bars or nailing a painting into a frame. The house was abuzz with his presence and creative energy.

Some of my earliest memories were of my father getting ready to go out with the watermen on skipjacks. He loved getting into his car before light, crossing the Bay Bridge and stepping into the lives of men who harvested the Bay under sail, a unique and dying culture.  There was a separateness about being on the water aboard these boats, far from the noise and pressures of our modern, technological world. He would come back at the end of the day very animated, excited to share the highlights of his day — how the early morning sky was ablaze with yellows and reds, almost unreal. He would relay spirited conversations he had had with the crew, imitating their accents and a telltale cock of the head.  Often he would come home with a bushel of oysters the captain had given him to take home for his family. 

After Dad went home to the Lord (I like to say “went home to the Lord,” rather than “passed away,”) Jan Glastra Van Loon, a family friend in Holland, sent a photo of a painting of a skipjack my dad had done for his Dad, Feico.  Feico had been a spiritual father to my dad for many years. In the painting, shadowy figures onboard the skipjack were obscured by the light. Jan said, “Now my dad and your dad are on board that boat together.” 

His comment gave me new insight into my Dad’s paintings. We are all like the fishermen on board the boat, harvesting the goodness of the works of our hands and living out our God-given destinies. The light that has such an illuminating and brilliant presence in my Dad’s paintings, is the loving favor and presence of God. The light, the presence of God, and the men have such a pure relationship with one another in his paintings; the fishermen and the sunlight are almost intertwined, as if they are one. 

As my Dad spent time with the watermen on the Chesapeake Bay, Biblical passages that reference fishermen would come alive to him. For Dad it was more than the skipjack as a subject matter, it was the means by which he portrayed God’s guidance in his life. My Dad wanted people to see the light!

Pursuing Excellence: Living Well

Artist Bob Askew, from Swanee, TN, first studied with Lee in 2004.  Bob was an instant friend, one of those people God planted in Lee’s life to give him strength for his calling and journey.  Bob was a tremendous source of encouragement.  He invited Lee to teach several workshops in Swanee which were all well attended thanks to Bob’s efforts. 

While I was down in Swanee attending a writer’s retreat this past September, Bob gave me a letter he had written to our family, remembering how Lee had touched his life.  Here are some excerpts from that letter: 

“I would like to say a few things about Lee — how my contact with him has affected me and given me tools for life.

The most striking is the idea that one’s life, career and faith should all be combined. Lee lived his life honestly, and his faith was clearly reflected in his work and in his teaching, qualities I believe are certainly worth emulating.

He also believed in pursing excellence in what he was doing. His commitment to doing things well began with materials and carried through in every aspect of his painting approach. He taught me how to conduct myself in a professional manner and to pursue excellence every step of the way.

Finally, I learned about endurance through my times working with Lee in his painting workshops. He was tireless, and always wanted to do another painting even after having worked hard all day, when it would have been easy to stop.

I will remember Lee’s love of life and of people and his gift of teaching forever. I am grateful for having known him and for the opportunity to learn from him, not only about painting, but more importantly about how to be a good friend, and how to live life well.

www.askewart.com”
Demonstration during a fall painting retreat at Watersong  -- Bedford, Virginia

Demonstration during a fall painting retreat at Watersong  -- Bedford, Virginia

Sea Change: Poem by Kathy Potter

Lobster Pier: Stonington, Maine

Lobster Pier: Stonington, Maine

The artist stands on the pier to paint

An ever changing sea.

He’s thrilled at the prospect of capturing

Dusk’s tranquil imagery.

 

The lobster boats shift from side to side

Each time he takes a fix.

The island, visible at five

Disappears at six.

 

The sun goes down, the fog rolls in.

The dock, it fades away.

The artist puts away his paint

To return another day.

 

Kathy’s husband Chris attended one of Lee’s workshops in Maine in August, 2005.

She wrote this poem for Lee.

 

Art: The Divine Fingerprints of Our Loving God

Enthusiasm — A strong interest in something that you like or enjoy.                                           Origin of the word: Greek, Enthousiasmos — God breathed, to be inspired

By way of this blog, I, Martha Boynton (Lee's wife), would like to extend a special thank you to all who have expressed such heartfelt appreciation for having known or studied with Lee.

“Enthusiastic” was a word people often used to describe Lee. He was enthusiastic about life and art.  Lee seemed to dance with remarkable ease and joy along the narrow path God had marked out for him— a career as a fine art painter and teacher.  He lived from the understanding that all people are created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-28). We are wired with an innate ability to imagine and create. Lee would often tell me he felt a perfect oneness with God when he would paint; he would be "co-creating with the Creator Himself." Lee’s greatest desire was to foster this gift in others through his teaching.

Lee and I worked closely together through our 36 years of marriage,  We were called to the mountain of the arts the day we met back in October, 1978.  I will be continuing our mission through this blog on the Lee Boynton Legacy site. Lee was a groundbreaker in the arts and his influence will live on.  I will be tracking the development and work of visual artists whose commitment to the arts bring beauty, joy and peace to our troubled world, reminding us of who (whose) we are and the hope we have in God. 

We look forward to the first reception of The Lee Boynton: The Light of Life show this coming Thursday, October 13, 2016, 5-8pm, at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis, MD. 

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