How this piece came together:

As I searched for inspiration, I do what I always do and ask myself what do I need right now and the word “grace” just kept coming.

Not really being able to understand what I’m feeling or why, I just let it percolate a bit and went on to other tasks.

I was working on a couple of other projects when I looked up at my bulletin board in front of my desk and two tiny little words were peeking out at me behind all kinds of tacked up items. Those two words were “amazing grace”

I pushed the other papers, photos, and color chips aside to get to those two words and found a cutout piece of cardboard that I had clipped from a fragrance bottle from Philosophy, probably 7 years ago. And this is what it said:

“how you climb up the mountain is just as important as how you get down the mountain. and, so it is with life, which for many of us becomes one big gigantic test followed by one big gigantic lesson. in the end, it all comes down to one word, grace. it’s how you accept winning and losing, good luck and back luck, the darkness and the light”……. grace…. amazing grace!

Those words shot through me, made me cry and it said something that I wasn’t able to say myself…. there was my inspiration.

I found a magazine page that had a mountain scene and used it as a reference and went to town, creating this landscape with vintage papers, acrylics, and soft pastels.

I included the bird’s nest because that’s the safety zone, the grace space, the soft place to land after climbing, learning, growing battling…. grace is my rest.

The quote will be on the back of the piece.

This original is created on ¾ “ wood substrate. With sides and back painted black and key hole on back for hanging. Looks great sitting on a shelf or in a stand as well. Lots of layers of vintage papers and paint. Signed and sealed with a soft gloss sealer.

Artwork copyright Shawn Petite LLC

Colors may vary due to monitors