Sparkling Gems

Print available for this painting

Sparkling Gems are natural treasures to discover in mountain streams, ocean depths, beachsides, flowing rivers, or gleaming from the dirt.

 

You walk along a mountain stream and gaze into its brilliant waters. At once, your attention is suddenly captured. For there in front of you is a sparkling gem casting laser beams toward you. You reach into the icy water and smile as your hand encircles one of the finest earth stones you have seen. Indeed, it doesn’t matter whether the stone is valuable or not. In all honesty, it only matters how the stone makes you feel as you run your fingers over the smooth surface.

These gemstones have life in them; their colors speak, say what words fail of
– George Eliot

Your feet touch the early morning cool sand as you walk along and admire the morning stillness. The tide is low, so you begin to search the beach for secret treasures that have come in with the evening high tides. Even now as an adult, you are excited with anticipation. For you never know what awaits your discovery. When you’re looking among beach rocks and pebbles for gemstones, you are only concerned with whatever appeals to you. In fact, your treasures are the stones that fascinate you. Moreover, the ones that challenge your thoughts and your imagination. You ponder the travels of these small stones and marvel at how they eventually landed before you.

Gemstones have a beauty unlike anything else because they allow light inside and refract it. – David Yurman

Sparkling Gems – a great find

You are so excited to have come across such a unique gemstone. You scoop it up and reflect on how as a little girl you would collect and cherish the many crystals and gems you found. For they, just as today, give you a positive energy and strength. Indeed, a way to connect to earth and nature.

Gemstones sparkle, they glitter like stars, their brilliance entices you. Additionally, they could be smoky quartz, mystic topaz, sunstone, blue topaz, blue sapphire, ocean jasper, earth gems, opals, agate, red coral, or an ordinary stone.  In fact, they have come to life through an infinite of combinations. Pressure, heat, location, the presence of other minerals and impurities, water, and geologic forces exerted later all contribute to the hardness, clarity, crystalline structure and color of gems and minerals. That’s what makes them so rare.

Gemstones Magic

If you hold this 
Dazzling emerald
Up to the sky,
It will shine a billion
Beautiful miracles
Painted from the tears
Of the Most High.
Plucked from the lush gardens
Of a yellowish-green paradise,
Look inside this hypnotic gem
And a kaleidoscope of
Titillating,
Soul-raising
Sights and colors
Will tease and seduce
Your eyes and mind.

― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

This oil painting with its topaz, turquoise, midnight, aquamarine, sky blues acts as a backdrop to the colorful sparkling gems that are scattered across the canvas. The painting was created with mostly palette knives and has its own sparkling gems. Are the gems precious, semi-precious or just unique? It doesn’t matter, for they have the ability to add a sparkle to your life and a connection to mother nature.

So, the next time you are out in nature, it could be the ocean, seashore, creek, river, or tiny stream, stop and peer down.  You just might find a sparkling gemstone, a spectacular treasure lying hidden beneath your feet.

There are gems of wondrous brightness
Ofttimes lying at our feet,
And we pass them, walking thoughtless,
Down the busy, crowded street.
If we knew, our pace would slacken,
We would step more oft with care,
Lest our careless feet be treading
To the earth some jewel rare.

Rudyard Kipling

Dare to Feel,

Red

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