Poppies

Oh poppies! They bloom so quick and fade so fast! Their beauty is silky and papery. Even the simplest one is stare worthy. I have to share some snaps with you. I took them in the studio using sunlight and a velvet backdrop. I find most of my inspiration for art sourced in nature. So, photography has been a wonderful way to give deep attention to the endless fine details.

If you are a gardener…these are Mother of Pearl Shirley Poppies. Angels Choir is another one of my favorites. I scatter seeds mixed with sand in late February and then again in early March. If there is snow on the ground even better. It feels wonderful to throw seeds in the face of winter. Then run back in the house and just let them be. They are happy if spring is cool and not too wet. They don’t like having their roots disturbed. So to thin them I snip rather than pull the seedlings out. They fade fast when the summer heat kicks in. My garden is really tiny so I just pull them out to make room for sunflowers and cosmos. But...someday I’ll have a big meadow and will let them dry into the prettiest little seeds heads.

If you are not a gardener…just enjoy my obsession:)

“When the world wearies and society fails to satisfy, there is always the garden.”

— Minnie Aumonier

In the Pink

Spectrum Series

This past week I had a bouquet of bleeding hearts keeping me company in the studio.

It’s of one my favorite flowers. I have so many I should say it’s my favorite flower of the moment. Watching them fade to pale pink and finally turn dusty lavender is so beautiful I wanted to show you.

And, I wanted to share this painting that I’ve been working on. It’s from the Spectrum Series, a group of 9 pieces…all different colors. I can’t say this piece is inspired by the bleeding hearts because I began it last summer. Yet, when I set my brushes down the other day I noticed how those pinks seemed to go perfect with it. There seems to me to be some similarity in the swirling shapes. I like finding these little connections and hope you do too:)

Hope you have a beautiful weekend!

“I know a bleeding-heart plant that has thrived for sixty years if not more, and has never missed a spring without rising and spreading itself into a grassy bush, with many small red hearts dangling.

Don’t you think that deserves
a little thought? ”

— Mary Oliver

Quarantine Queens

Hello there! How are you holding up?

This strange time has gone on longer than most of us ever imagined. Days seem both to be skipping by and dragging into a big blur. In my studio time, I’ve been experimenting!

I’ve come to think of this set of “doodle ladies” as The Quarantine Queens.

They began with an impulse when I discovered a forgotten pile of old inkjet photo paper. I improvised mono printing with a mirror and acrylic paint for ink. Making a big mess…and some interesting swirling blobs.

They took off in all sorts of directions. It’s fun finding faces and figures in all the chaos of shapes.

Like all queens some are pretty and some not so much…but each has a power of her own.

They all have a windy & wild feel with a nod to fashion with batting eyelashes and headress hats. Masks like veils of protection so much more interesting than the cut-up T-shirt ones I’ve been wearing;)

I hope you enjoy them as a little escape into creative imagination! Stay safe and be well!

“Come on, fight me as a queen would.”

— Rebecca Ross

“A crown of kisses to the queen of dreams.”

— Albert Camus

“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness.”

— Oprah Winfrey

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Tulip Time

In between making my doodles…

I’ve been having deep thinks about how to keep a creative life going at a time when uncertainty is in such sharp focus. 

The future has always been uncertain. We all know this…still, it’s so easy to ignore it. We easily turn our daydreams into plans. We get ready…we order supplies, save dates, and pennies while gulping down refreshing glasses of hope that it will all work out. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes a pandemic changes everything.

This makes us both fabulously human and diligent students of disappointment. There is a magic place of balance between the two that I’m always trying to find.

My go-to for deep thinks is my little garden. I’ve been studying my tulips in lowlight mode with my camera. Following the process of things falling apart.

Watching the fire in the petals fold up into swirl sculptures.

Seeing that single drop of water rise from the green skeleton…like a tear ready to weep. 

Or, maybe it’s breaking free and making plans…to find its way back to the ocean!

I’m not sure yet;)

I’ll miss seeing you all this spring since the open studio is understandably postponed…but I’m making plans to see you in September. Go ahead mark your calendar…September 19th & 20th!

Wishing you beauty & be well in all things!

“I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every day.”

— Oriah Mountain Dreamer

“Everything changed in a matter of minutes
And nothing was saved in time
All of my old world and all the things in it are hard to find
But they never never never were mine”

— Shawn Colvin

“We are survivors of immeasurable events,
Flung upon some reach of land,
Small, wet miracles without instructions,
Only the imperative of change.”

— Rebecca Elson