Play Dough – Painted Hills

Grandson Braxtyn loves play dough. He can spend a good 3-4 hours using his creative hands and molding anything you can think of.  I don’t get to see him often due to the distance. Whenever I visited him, I liked to surprise him with a large box of play dough and some kind of molding device. He would drop everything he was doing and focus immediately on play dough projects. Nothing is more satisfying than to see the smile on the face of a little boy.

Painted Hills or Play Dough

When I was a child, I was told to believe that God used his play dough to mold us human beings. He then baked the molded shape of human figures and blew in his breath to give them life. The Caucasian skin tone is lighter because it is from the batch of undone products. Africans are apparently the well-done batch because the result is a darker skin tone.  And, Asians are perfectly baked and so we have the medium and ‘just right’ skin color, not too light or too dark.  Not to fret if you don’t like your skin tone. This is just the hearsay from Asian grandmothers.  Your grandmother may have a better story for you🙂

Sculptures

A miscalculation about the driving distance, we missed the golden hours, but it was not too bad. The sky was bright, but the hills were still in the shade on our arrival and they gradually re-surfaced as the sun rose higher.  The better time to be here appears to be sunset, but I don’t regret a 5:00am wake-up call either. The hills are sculptured to the shapes that spark emotion and flow. A supreme paint brush has magically touched them and brought up the gradient look. A dramatic white cloud has turned the blue sky into a pastel tapestry.

Honey-Covered

I saw a small mount coated with honey, light, and amber, dripping from the top.  The tipping point seems to glue to the sky, but it is infinitely far away. I want my photography skills to be higher and higher, but I know that I won’t reach the top.  Just when I thought that I have built a higher mount, there is another one higher than mine (一山比一山高). Regardless of how good I am, I know I will always find someone else better than I.  My conclusion is to settle in my ‘lofty’ goal and be content with wherever I am. I see brown like honey, you may see it as chocolate, or champagne. If not for this diversity, the world won’t be as fun.

The divine design does not end with a honey-covered cone. It turns and twists. It flows and moves. The hill is stationed, but it looks in motion. The play dough is no longer a single tan color, it is a shade mixture of tan, brown, burgundy, and wine colors. I am not sure if it will look exactly the same when I come around next time. Nature is unpredictable and therefore, magical.

Brush Strokes

The brush strokes are painted across and the deep burgundy color is left on the tips. Fall rain has enriched the pasture so green. The contrast between crisp green and rich burgundy is vibrant and mid-tone tan is set to balance. Fine falling gravels add slight texture and also spread the burgundy paint down and across the diagonal lines…  Kneading, molding, sculpturing, and painting work continue as the seasons change and hopefully, I am making progress in my photography skills as well.