A Season Full of Promise

Well, we sure had to wait for it but spring is really here. The leaves are starting to open on the trees and there is finally colour in my garden. This is one of my favourite times of year.

I'm not the only one celebrating. There was a gathering of cedar waxwings and a robin in the backyard this morning.

It has rained most of the weekend but I'm not complaining. First of all, it's not snow. It's providing nourishment for the garden. Many flowers are in bloom but there are still so many still to come. I have seeds to plant and annuals to buy. It's a season full of promise and possibilities.

Here's a tiny bouquet of garden flowers from me to you.

A Very Special Painting

When I received the message on Facebook this past summer, I remember reading it with my hand over my heart. Andra introduced herself as the mother of a little girl who had recently died of cancer, a day before her sixth birthday. She wondered if I would do a painting in memory of her daughter.

My initial reaction was that I couldn’t possibly do it. It seemed so sad. I thought that doing the painting would make me feel sad. Then I reread her message.

The girl she was describing was a joyous and happy person. Andra listed the colors she liked best: pink, red, yellow, light blue and green. She told me how Helen loved flowers, ladybugs, rolly-pollies, butterflies, birds, the beach and sea creatures. She said that she wanted the painting to include Helen’s name as well as some of her loves.

I realized that this was a very happy painting she was describing.  Helen enjoyed so many of the same things that I do. She was someone who loved nature and who thoroughly appreciated the world around her. The list of Helen’s likes included many of the things I love to paint the most.

I wrote back to Andra and, over a series of emails, we came to an agreement that I would do a painting for Helen. She wanted a painting that was larger than I usually do. After much thought, I committed to doing a 16 x 20 inch watercolour.

Andra was lovely throughout the process. She left the visual side of the painting entirely up to me. I showed her the initial rough sketch I had come up with and then she very, very patiently waited to see the final version. The painting took me several weeks to complete.

My initial rough sketch when I was trying to figure out the contents and composition.

I started by painting the banner and then began adding all of the other elements.

Slowly but surely, I added all of the creatures and flowers.

With most of main elements in place, I started to pull the sky down and behind the flowers.

This watercolour was an absolute joy to work on but it also was a lot of work. Its size, the number of things it included made it one of the most complex paintings I have worked on in a very long while. The detailed sketch alone took me two days. I don’t generally do detailed sketches but this painting required it. By the time I finished the painting, I realized I had looked at almost 50 reference photos in order to be sure that I was being true to all of the creatures and flowers I had included. In my research, I even found a flower that is called ‘Helen’s Flower’ (Helenium). It’s the yellow flower on the left and right (visible in the full view of the painting). The shell, sea urchin and starfish were all from my seashell collection. Some of my garden flowers were used as models.

A detail from the centre of the painting

Details from the bottom of the painting - A snail, mushrooms, a heart-shaped rock and three rollie-pollies playing together on the rocks at the right hand side.

It was so important to me to create something that was not just a good painting but something that was appropriate to and worthy of Helen’s memory. I wanted to create a painting that Helen would have loved.

Do you want to know something? I didn’t feel sad once while working on this painting. I felt happy. As I was working on it, I found myself thinking ‘Wouldn’t it have been nice to have met Helen and then I realized I did. I had met Helen “through” my painting.

After I sent photos of the completed painting to Andra, she responded within minutes:  “Oh, my goodness...It is absolutely beautiful! Helen would have loved it! The painting is soooo Helen…” Mission accomplished. I had created a painting that was true to Helen. I burst into happy tears.

When I asked Andra's permission to do this blog post about my painting and the story behind it, she said she would only agree if people didn’t feel sorry for Helen or her family. She said “Helen was so joyful and happy, she must be remembered that way too.”

My painting was done for a beautiful, joyful little girl who loved the world and all those around her. This painting is a celebration of a wonderful person named Helen.

Nature's Paintbox

I am constantly amazed by the beauty in nature. I love looking closely at flowers and admiring the lines, colours and textures of each bloom. Of all of the flowers I know, I think pansies remind me the most of watercolours. Don't you think Mother Nature must have her own extra special paintbox?

I have painted a lot of violas and pansies over the years. They are such happy flowers. You can click here to see a few of my prints featuring them.  If you are relatively new to my blog you won't know this special connection. One of my grandmothers was named Viola.

I planted the little beauties in these photos in my front garden this week. The traditional planting date for annuals in our region has been May 24th for many years. I tend to try to plant much earlier if overnight temperatures are forecast above frost. Pansies, however, can handle frost so they can be planted before most any other annual. One neighbour a few houses down never plants anything before May 24th. Often when I'm out planting my first annuals, he will pass by and say "Isn't it a little early to be planting those, Kathleen?" I always assure him that they will be fine. It's like an annual tradition! I was a little disappointed that he didn't walk by this year. ;)

I have been so busy this past week with the spring cleanup in my garden that I haven't had a paintbrush in my hand once! I have so many flower beds that it takes at least five full days to clean everything up. I filled 20 big garbage bags with clippings and garden waste for the municipal green pickup! You should have seen the pile at the curb. I feel like I should have got some sort of Amazon woman award for that! Once the beds are presentable again, I will move my attention to my beloved square-foot vegetable garden.

My handsome and kind-hearted garden supervisor

After the slow, cold beginning to the spring, this week has been remarkably sunny and warm. If you blink, you can miss an important change in the garden. Leaves have opened. Flowers are blooming. We have our first sparrow family too. It's a beautiful time of year.

Happy Spring!

We are not enjoying spring weather here yet. We had a big snowstorm on Tuesday so our spring so far looks like the photo above. Meeko is enjoying his snowy walks so I am trying to concentrate on his joy while outside. Trust me, under that fur are happy eyes. :)

While inside, I am painting 'spring'. I started working on a painting yesterday that I have had in my head for the longest time. I wanted to 'paint' my blog and shop name. I chose the name 'Trowel and Paintbrush' because of how much I love both gardening and painting.

The second photo has a little more detail in the flower.  I've used Fabriano Artistico soft-press 140 lb. paper for this painting. It's the first time I've used their soft press paper (a grade between cold press and hot press). I'm not sure how much I like it yet but it is very easy to lift and push colours around on it which you can't always do on other papers. 

In the past couple of weeks, I have also put the finishing details on paintings that were in my 'almost finished' pile. I've already posted these on Facebook and Twitter but will include them here for those who only follow me here. 

So as you can see, there is a winter palette outdoors but the palette inside my head is definitely one of spring! The first day of spring was yesterday here but I am still celebrating. And happy autumn to my friends down under!

Butterflies

There are butterflies everywhere lately. In the garden. Along pathways. In fields. It makes for wonderfully lively walks. Add to that swirling leaves. Autumn is bursting with movement and colour.

I was very lucky to get a few photos of these gorgeous butterflies (Painted Lady or Vanessa cardui) when they visited my garden a week ago. They are very shy and would flit away as soon as I got anywhere near them. I finally ran into the house and got my long-range lens. It's so heavy that I had to stay very, very still and try not to shake (no time to run and get my tripod) but I am so happy with how these photos turned out. I have never painted a butterfly before. I am definitely going to try one.

And then I found this beautiful quote:

The butterfly is a flying flower,
The flower is a tethered butterfly.

Ponce Denis Échouchard Lebrun (translation)

No wonder I love them both.

A special note:  With these butterfly images, I am also sending love to my brother-in-law Alan, sister Nancy and nieces Erica and Sydney. Alan's brother Mark passed away this week at the age of 50 from melanoma. We are thinking about you all. Mark's obituary recounted his life as a pilot but mostly as a husband, involved citizen and devoted dad of three girls. It ended with this simple, poignant message: wear sunscreen.

Red Alert

Today's colour for the Poppytalk Summer Colours photo collection is...red! We had a discussion here yesterday as to whether these fruits were pink or red. There's a bit of both in them but we decided they veer more to the red side than pink. I can't eat watermelon. I wish I could as it seems to be such a perfect summer fruit, but I always have an upset stomach afterwards.  Emma and Chloé love it though.

The sun was out this morning. Hello sunshine! The evidence of the rain from the past few days is still apparent on the geranium blossoms.  I love the photo of the geranium below. The blossom was laden with moisture that was backlit by the morning sunshine. There is a surreal quality to it.

I don't always have a lot of red in the garden, but this year I included more red in my flower pots. The centre photo is salvia and at the bottom is diascia.  Diascia is one of my favourite annuals. It comes in pink, coral and red and is remarkably resilient.  It handles the summer heat and will continue to bloom long after many annuals have succumbed to autumn frost.

I mentioned yesterday that Chloé was quite enthused by this whole colour week theme. My budding photographer took the following two photos (along with many others I don't have space to show).

I was actually giving her a hard time when she was taking photos of pretty much everything we passed, as Meeko really needs a brisk walk.  In the end, I'm glad she ignored her mother and took the photos. I particularly love her arty photo of the fire hydrant.

There are lots of lovely red photos gathering in the Poppytalk Summer Colour pool. I'm sure there will be lots more added throughout the day.  It has been fun to do, although it has taken up quite a bit of time this week. I am getting quicker though. This post was pulled together quicker than the ones earlier this week.

Busy day here. Emma has her rehearsal for her high school graduation ceremony which happens on Saturday. Chloé is having her 13th birthday party at the end of the day. She doesn't turn 13 until July 7th but it was a challenge getting her friends together on the same date. They are going out for dinner (with us) and then will have a sleepover. That is such a misnomer as there never really is that much sleep involved, is there?

Pretty in Pink

Photos taken this week come with raindrops, no extra charge.  Today's colour for the Poppytalk Summer Colours collection is pink. I am very fond of pink in the garden, although you won't find very much of it in my house.

The photo above is of the efflorescence of my Cotinus 'Grace' bush. It looks like a soft pink cloud lately. I've included the photo of this Oriental poppy below in a previous blog post but I'm publishing it horizontal this time. I no longer have any idea of which way is the right way up for it. :)

The false mallow (sidalcea) looked beautiful this morning. This particular one is called 'Party Girl' and I'm thinking she put on her best ruffles when she got up today because she knew it was Poppytalk's pink day. 

Chloé has been quite enthusiastic about Summer Colours week and I had trouble getting the camera out of her hands yesterday.  She took the photo below as well as the one of Meeko. (She took some others that I will include in Red day on Thursday and Blue day on Friday.)

The photo below is of a sweet little strawberry blossom in the square-foot garden. This is an all-season plant that produces strawberries (a small handful at a time) for the entire summer.

And my final photo is one I took a few months ago, but I thought its beautiful soft pink tones would fit perfectly in today's coloured theme: pink-toned rocks with a beautiful hand-dyed scarf that I bought from Margie.

Because I am downloading my photos from Flickr this week rather than from my computer, the vertical shots are less wide than the horizontal ones.  In the past I've made both the horizontal and vertical shots the same width as my column.  I'm curious if anyone noticed, first of all, or has a preference one way over the other.

They Call Me Mellow Yellow

I am continuing to colour code my blog posts this week in sync with Poppytalk's Summer Colours week. Yellow is a lovely choice for today because there is no sunshine here at all.  All of these cheerful subjects will take its place.

My daylilies must have known about 'Yellow' day.  The first summer bloom opened this morning. What lovely timing.

1. One of the books in Emma's summer book stack.

2. Daylily - yellow is not my favourite colour in the garden but this soft, lemony yellow is perfection.

3. Buttercups

4. Shasta Daisy

5. Grape tomato blossoms

6. 'Pineapple' tomato blossoms - I cannot wait to see the fruit!

7. Yellow clematis tangutica - Gorgeous but highly invasive.

8. Gaillardia - Gallo Peach Blanket

9. Dandelion - so maligned yet really quite beautiful close up.

10. Heron and Canada Geese with reflection from the street light taken last night when Emma, Meeko and I went for a walk with the mosquitoes.  The photo is not super sharp because I took it at dusk but I couldn't resist including it.

Wishing you a sunshiny day!

Friends participating in the Poppytalk Summer Colours week include:  Sonia, Margie and Geninne.
Have a look!