Winter Inspiration: Story Behind the Painting

Sometimes the winter months seem like they will never end. That initial delight when the first snowflakes of the season arrive can turn into a cold and dark dread of winter's final days. Even my creative spirit at this time of year can feel sluggish as if it was laden down with ice crystals.

In November, a lovely customer ordered my Autumn Leaf print with the Albert Camus quote: "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower". She contacted me once she had received her order and asked if I knew of the beautiful winter quote by Camus. I didn't and what a beauty it is: "In the depth of winter I finally learned that within me lay an invincible summer". Isn't that gorgeous? Quite beyond enduring unpleasant weather and dragging seasons, it speaks to the strength that we can find inside ourselves when life is difficult.

She said she would be interested in a companion print with the winter quote and had a wonderful idea of what to include with it. She suggested winterberry also known as Ilex verticillata. Do you know it? It's a beautiful shrub--a species of holly native to parts of North America. When the rest of nature is brown, grey or covered with snow, winterberry sports beautiful bright red berries.

While I wasn't able to find winterberry in my local forest, I did find branches of it at a nearby garden centre. I absolutely loved painting the berries. A greater challenge for me was creating the lettering in watercolour to match the quote I had done for the autumn leaf image. Watercolour paint is capricious. Hand lettering with a small paintbrush is not like using a computer font that remains the same each time you use it, although in the middle of this project I sort of wished it was! I did so many tries before finally coming up with a version that was similar in weight and tone to the previous quote. I am happy to say that my winterberry print is now available in my shop, on its own or coupled with the autumn leaf print.

Thank you to my lovely customer and Albert Camus for the wonderful winter inspiration!

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You can buy directly from me below. Your order will be processed through my secure Shopify shop. Shipping is free in Canada and the US. A flat rate of $7.50 applies to all other destinations. Products are shipped within 3-5 days of your order. ~ Kathleen

November Musings

I've introduced a lot of new work to my shop recently. During the past week, I introduced a new collection of pansy prints. They are available individually and as a set. I have a real soft spot for pansies. Aside from being beautiful flowers, they are associated with many childhood memories. I used to pick pansies in my grandparents' garden. An extra layer to those memories and associations is the fact that my grandmother's name was Viola.

This past week, I also had something to celebrate. I passed 2,000 followers on Instagram! I appreciate the people who follow me there so much. Instagram is definitely one of my 'happy places'. It's a great place to feel encouragement and inspiration. A real hub of creativity.

Because I have been working on the computer so much the past couple of weeks to convert paintings into new prints, I find my afternoon walks with Meeko extra restorative. On Friday afternoon, I decided to walk a little farther than usual on a road we don't usually take. The road is bordered by corn fields. It was so beautiful.

That was the day that I learned that Meeko is the colour of a corn field in autumn. Now you know too.

While I do love autumn, November is not my favourite month. I miss the flowers in my garden. I find the lack of daylight hard. It makes taking product photos more complicated. I don't like that it's already dark when Chloé gets home from school. I start to feel the pressure of the impending holidays. I have lots of things to keep me busy in the weeks ahead which is good. Colder days will mean that I can start to walk regularly in the little forest with Meeko again. We've already been a couple of times.

With plentiful studio time and Meeko time, I'll get through November just fine.

Gardening Season Draws to a Close

The snow hasn't arrived here yet. I was able to work in the garden a bit today. My fall clean-up is pretty much done. It's nice when the snow waits until I am finished. There have been many years when I have been caught by surprise by an early snowstorm.

I took these photos a couple of weeks ago when I was bringing some hydrangeas into the house. I discovered some spotted stowaways and thought I would share my photos of them. I saw ladybugs today too. The warm sun seems to bring them out.

There are several months in the year when I am very torn between painting and gardening. The winter months remove that pressure. When it's cold and snowy, painting is the obvious choice. As much as I will miss my garden, I look forward to cozy studio time.

Happy October!

Despite the chill in the air this morning, there is still lots of prettiness in the garden! Best wishes for a wonderful month! ❤

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I initially posted this with just the top photo but it seemed too bare. (I'm not a minimalist.) I've added a few more photos from my garden tour this morning. Now, that feels better. :)

Painting Goodbye to Autumn

A few weeks ago, I started a painting of two maple leaves and a key. When I went back to work on it yesterday, I found that the leaves had curled up in my absence. I don't blame them. Autumn naps are lovely.

Curly or not, they had still retained enough colour to use them as references. I put the final touches on my painting this morning.

I love painting leaves so much. They are like tiny quilts full of different colours and textures. I love the challenge of trying to replicate all of the hues, veins and crinkles.

I have tried a lot of different watercolour papers in the past couple of years. For this painting, I went back to a paper I used to use quite often: Saunders Waterford 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. I had forgotten how nice it was to work with.

A detail from my painting

It is freezing cold here right now. Time for scarves, boots and gloves. I always hold out until the very last moment for hats. :) We have had snowflakes in the air but not on the ground so far. There's a small reprieve from the wintry weather ahead though. Temperatures are supposed to be quite mild over the weekend, so I have lucked out as far as weather for planting bulbs goes. Good thing too as I have over 300 of them to plant. We have to put our garden furniture away too.

Here are some photos from Instagram (a work-in-progress photo, a leaf collection from a walk and the finished painting):

I'll leave you with a photo of my studio assistant this morning. He'll have you know that inspiring someone as they paint autumn leaves is exhausting work!

Garden Lullaby

This week, I gave myself a gift. I took a break from my work and spent a day and a half in the garden getting it ready for winter. I often say "I need my garden and my garden needs me". It is without a doubt a reciprocal relationship. Whatever I give, I receive back in beauty, a rested mind and restored spirit.

I was lucky that the weather was unseasonably mild. It was perfect for gardening. There have been plenty of years when I have done end-of-season work while freezing. There have also been years where I have been completely surprised by early snow and have had to leave the garden in its messy state until spring.

I removed annuals from pots and flower beds. I trimmed a few perennials although I leave most of them intact until spring to serve as bird food and winter interest. I moved a few perennials to better places and cleaned up the vegetable garden. I was happy to find a small patch of violas still in bloom in the center of the veggie patch.

I always have mixed emotions at this time of year. There is sadness that the growing season has come to a close. At the same time, I feel a sense of peace with the quiet state of the garden and a sense of hope at what the next year will bring.

Some of the trees and shrubs are completely bare. Others still have bits of color.

Yesterday's sunshine provided me with a late-season encounter with a garden friend. A little ladybug took a tour around my garden-gloved hand before taking off.

Throughout, I worked under the thoughtful gaze of my garden supervisor.

I am hoping that the good weather holds out a bit longer. I have a big order of spring bulbs on its way to me. Their shipment was delayed and I won't be able to plant them until next week.  Keep your fingers crossed for me that they arrive before temperatures plunge!

Leaves and The Sound of Music

When I was working on getting ready for my arts and crafts show, I had a moment of panic. I thought 'Oh no! I am going to miss all of the autumn leaves.'  Well, I didn't miss them all but there sure are a lot of them falling today. The wind is quite strong. It makes me a little sad to see the trees starting to look bare and the leaves all piled on the ground.

On Thursday, the weather kept changing. It was raining and then it wasn't. Back and forth. Meeko doesn't enjoy the rain so much any more. When he was a puppy, he didn't mind any kind of weather. So I waited for a gap in the rain to go for a walk with him. When I got out on our front steps, I had to run back in for my camera. The leaves on the front porch all had these gorgeous, big fat water droplets on them. It was a moment of magic.

As I was taking these photos, I found myself singing out loud. I was singing 'My Favorite Things' from the Sound of Music. Isn't that funny? (And what do the neighbors think, I wonder?)  Raindrops on leaves might not be raindrops on roses but, to me, they are just as beautiful.

That last photo is my favorite.

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I am celebrating an anniversary this weekend. Today is the 2nd anniversary of my shop opening on Etsy! It feels longer than that somehow. To show my thanks to all of my customers and supporters, I am offering 20% off today and tomorrow on anything in my shop (October 20th and 21st). Just use the coupon code 2THANKYOU at checkout.

❤ A big thank you to you all! ❤

Giving Thanks

Meeko was telling me that I haven't been focusing on him enough lately. True. I've been working very hard the past few weeks, both on a commissioned painting and preparations for an autumn arts and crafts show.  He has been getting less chin scratches and sofa cuddles from me. Our walks have sometimes been at a faster pace than usual (that part he doesn't really mind). Sometimes they have been later in the day than normal and he has had to work harder and harder to get my attention (sock stealing, sighing, stalking my every move, quiet but heart-wrenching crying beside me).

This is the Thanksgiving weekend in Canada. The weather is absolutely beautiful. It is a time for looking around us and giving thanks. My nephew and his girlfriend are visiting, so I was forced to stop working and pay attention to other things. I did some housecleaning this morning. As I was cleaning the kitchen table, I noticed that the chrysanthemums in the pots on the back porch weren't looking great. I went out and started deadheading them. It was methodical, soothing work and they look beautiful again. As I was looking after them, it hit me that I hadn't worked in the garden since early September. I realized that today was the first day in weeks that I haven't either been working on a painting, my Etsy shop or my show preparations. (You can see some of what I've been up to on my Instagram page.)

Meeko accompanied me outside and I gathered flowers and leaves from the garden and filled several vases. So now, autumn is outside and inside.

Our guests have arrived and Meeko is very happily entertaining them.

This weekend, I am giving thanks for being forced to slow down a little, for the beauty of nature, for my garden and its gifts, for family, friends and my sweet and patient furry boy.

Stormy Thoughts

What a strange night it was watching the storm from a distance through social media (Twitter mostly) as it descended upon the East Coast. Despite severe weather warnings here, we were very lucky. There were thousands in Quebec without power this morning but damage was minor. In our neighbourhood, everything was intact.

I found it odd that we were looking at a beautiful and serene Hunter's Moon while the weather was so ferocious elsewhere. I took this photo this morning. I would have taken more but Meeko somehow got it into his head that the tripod was attacking me and wouldn't stop barking at it. Or at least, I think that was what he was thinking.

Then, he spent a good part of the morning staring out the window. I'm curious what he was thinking about then too (apart from squirrels and maybe the tripod).

I know what I was thinking about last night and this morning. I was thinking how lucky we were not to have been affected by the storm. We were evacuated from our home for 10 days during the Ice Storm of 1998 and we felt the effects long after the storm had faded away. There were good things, as families spent more quiet time together because of not having electricity, and there were bad things, that even children who were in the womb at the time suffered long-term effects from the stress. Emma was three at the time and we stayed in three different homes over the course of 10 days. My heart goes out to those who have been affected and displaced by the storm. It will take a long time to recover from the physical and psychological effects of Sandy. And there's stuff that isn't important in the scale of things but I know that there are little kids sad to be missing school and maybe even trick-or-treating.

I was also thinking about a chihuahua and her owner last night as I knew that little dog who was lost three weeks ago now in Brooklyn would be top of mind for Danielle during the storm.  Little Myrtle is in my thoughts every day.

And I thought about how odd it is and not really right, that we are hit harder sometimes when we know the place that is devastated in a natural disaster. I guess it's because it deals with the familiar. It's not that we don't care about the disasters that occur far, far way. I donate to international disaster relief when and if I can, as I'm sure you do too. It's just harder somehow when we know and identify with the landmarks, the geography and the people.

Meeko perked up a little this afternoon and then resumed his contemplative mood. It was just that kind of day.

The Beauty of Autumn

It's hard to beat the beauty of autumn. As much as I adore spring and get excited each and every time that my garden comes to life again, I find autumn to be so 'stop me in my steps' beautiful.  Freshly fallen leaves with their impossibly bright hues. Crispy, faded leaves with their more subdued palette. I love them all.

On Friday, I finally got back into my studio to paint again. The dried leaf I used as a model was a little work of art in itself. So delicate and yet full of detail and colour. I posted an 'in progress' version of my painting on Facebook and Twitter and got myself tied in knots. I had so many nice comments that I was almost afraid to finish it and ruin it somehow. (Each painting is full of a hundred moments of insecurity. I turn a corner and another and another.) But I did finish it and I really like how it turned out.

Here are some of the autumn photos I've taken the past couple of weeks of things I've seen on my walks as well as leaf bouquets and collections that have found their way home.