Painting Mother Nature?

I'm an artist who likes to understand what I'm painting and get the full story behind what I'm painting.  This is my story of understanding the story behind mother nature.  One of my most popular painting is a depiction of mother nature, infact many of the women I paint could almost be seen as a nature influenced or different versions of mother nature.  To understand the paintining we must know the story.

Who is She?

We have all heard references about mother nature.  When we are trying to connect to nature we say that we are trying to connect to mother nature.  Who exactly is mother nature?  Where did the idea come from and when was it first discussed?  Has the idea of mother nature always been with us?

What and When?

To understand mother nature we must realize that mother nature is not simply the earth or nature, but the essence of giving life.  Mother Nature represents the earth and giving life.  If we think of this concept of life giving, the idea of mother nature would start in pre-historic times.  The first images of mother nature is an image of a woman, pregnant fertility or venus statues that appeared in Europe and Asia during the Paleolithic time period. 

 Greek Mythology

The first time we start to see a visual representation of mother nature that involved more of nature rather than fertility is the Greek Goddess Gaia.  This version of the mother nature is more of what modern ideas of mother nature are.  Gaia created the earth and the ecosystem of the earth. 

Middle Ages

The idea of mother nature has always been around as long as we have been around to talk about it, but the idea gained strength in the Middle Ages.  The Middle Ages helped us fully develop and popularize the Mother Earth concept.

Crafting the Painting

I created this painting after a lot of research into mother nature.  This blog post is only the tip of the iceburg when learning about mother nature.  In future posts I'll revisit the idealogy of mother earth.  Most cultures around the world have some concept of the earth mother.  In my painting I wanted to create a beautiful woman looking out to you, all knowning and motherly.  Hope you enjoyed the voyage.