Nothing has shown how balance in the garden makes the best sense than this growing season. We started off dry, with lots of sun. Then switched to damp, even waterlogged, with little sun. As a result, most things have not had the conditions they love to thrive. I’ve had many plants suffer poor blooming and many things have developed blights, fungal outbreaks, or other problems. Many weeds this year too. Too many for my tastes. Here’s what I’ve captured since the solstice. Enjoy the gallery!
I’m trying to catch up with all the garden photos I’ve taken so far this year. This set is mid to late spring. Most are shot in our gardens, but a few are from other places around town. Hopefully you will find them as rewarding to view, as I have in planting and taking care of them.
Happy Solstice everyone! I hope these brighten your day, a little bit, no matter where you are in the world.
As an artist I can get stuck and need inspiration or help getting out of a pattern that isn’t going anywhere. Sometimes the easiest thing for me to do is to look at photography and let it take me somewhere. Since I’ve blogged for a very long time, on multiple sites, I’ve also come up short sometimes with stock photos I could use for header graphics for posts. Here is a list of stock photo places I go to for inspiration. Most are completely free to use as you wish; a few require attribution, but I think that is a very small price to pay for free usage of someone’s art. At the very end of the list I am also including the link to the Prelinger Archives which has 6600 free use films. Enjoy exploring & using them!
Continue reading “Need Free Stock #Photos Full Of #Beauty & Inspiration? Try These”
Spring has sprung! The garden is not exactly in hyper drive right now and I’m behind I yard work and I’m trying to keep up. Not much in the way of rain this year, so the plants and the flowers are smaller and are not lasting as long as they normally do this time of year. Not as much of an early show. Continue reading “Savoring Sumptuous #Spring #Garden #Flowers”
This is a set that is best viewed in person. Photos just don’t do them justice. It was inspired by footage of the wildfires in California this year, specifically a garden with roses on fire. Not something I’d want to happen to anyone, but it was a great inspiration for these paintings. I began with a textured surface and then a metallic base background in silver. Then I used acrylic and ink, in red, yellow, and orange layers, to build the roses and flames.
These two pieces are favorites right now. They look even better in person! If you came to the local show, you already had a chance to see them then, but for everyone else this is your first look at them. Lots of layers, impressions, stamping, and rich autumn colors. I chose a set of simple, unvarnished, natural wood frames for them. I think they compliment them without distracting from them. Enjoy!
Getting the house ready for the winter holidays brings much excitement for me each year. Though much of the house stays the same in the way I decorate it, it is never exactly the same. Down below you will find several things that are different from previous years. I’ve included a photo of the two of us the first time we decorated the house together and a photo of the new hall radiator cover that Stan made for me. You will also see some new antique furniture additions. We are retiring some of my old furniture, from before we were a couple, to be used for storage in the basement and that has allowed us to find new pieces for the house. We’ve also finished some more of the small projects we are doing so you might see changes in the house in that way as well. Happy holidays everyone!
Continue reading “Holly Jolly #Winter #Holidays #House #Photos”
