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

A New Print and Free Shipping

Just to let all of my lovely blog readers know that I'm having a free shipping special in my Etsy shop right through the weekend and until the end of the week. It's for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and just plain old Christmas shopping wherever you live! Just use the coupon HOLIDAY when you check out.

I order a lot things online and I know there have been many occasions when I put something in my cart, see the shipping charges and change my mind. Even though I try to keep my shipping charges as low as possible, I thought free shipping would be helpful to everyone's budget.

I've just added a new print to my shop. It's the serviceberry branch shown above. The original painting is shown below.

Happy holidays to those celebrating in the U.S. and happy weekend to the rest of you!

The original painting 'Serviceberry Branch' painted on Twinrocker cold-pressed paper

More before they fall

I am continuing my leaf paintings. Yesterday, I picked a bouquet of leaves before deciding which ones to paint.

In the end, I chose to paint the leaves and berries of a beautiful shrub called highbush cranberry (viburnum trilobum).  I grow it in my garden but also have noticed it growing wild in neighbouring forests.  The berries on this bush are lovely.  If I'm very lucky, the berries will stay on the shrub long past when the leaves have fallen. They are particularly beautiful when covered by frost or a thin dusting of snow. Unfortunately, I rarely see them in that state as sometime soon I expect a roving band of marauders to swoop in and steal my ruby treasures.  I am referring to those masked bandits, the cedar waxwings.

Watercolour on handmade Saint-Armand paper

As I was painting this, it was reminding me of a painting I did a few years back of some tangled branches of bittersweet.  I dug it out of my portfolio to show you. It is HUGE by my standards. Everything's relative. :)

Detail of Bittersweet painting on Arches 140 lb. watercolour paper

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A little aside:  I love Google! I could not think of the name of the cedar waxwing (brain freeze) so I typed in "bird mask eats berries flock".  Cedar waxwing popped up as the first entry.