A Little (Lotta) Lilac Love

It's that beautiful time of year when the air is heavy with the sweet fragrance of lilacs. I have four common lilac shrubs (Syringa vulgaris). They are planted around the corner of our house where there are no windows. Their tantalizing scent draws us out of the house and around the corner to visit them. I bury my nose in in the blossoms whenever I pass by. I am sensitive to many fragrances but I have no trouble at all with the scent of lilacs. Thankfully.

I did the watercolour painting below in 2012. I think it's one of the originals that I will always hang onto. I offer both prints and cards with this image and they continue to be among my most popular products. I often use my Lilacs image on the little thank you cards that I include with orders. Maybe you've received one from me.

My original 'Lilacs' watercolour painting

Set of 5 Lilac note cards

My dwarf Palibin lilac is gearing up to bloom just as the others fade.

I did my 'Lilac Sprig' watercolour in 2013. That original has sold but I offer the image as a print and note cards. I took advantage of the lilacs being in bloom to take this new photo on my 'Lilac Sprig' print this past week. It's a sweet 5" x 7" print that looks very pretty framed.

I don't cut lilacs often for bouquets. I find that they don't last very long in a vase. I couldn't resist cutting a few though recently and they were drooping by the next day. Does anyone have a trick for making cut lilacs last? I would love to hear it!

And to close, a little music sung by Jeff Buckley. Because lilacs!

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Update: My friend, Margie, of Resurrection Fern has given me a tip for making cut lilacs last longer. She suggests smashing the woody stems with a mallet or meat tenderizer. I will give this a try!

Lovely Lilacs: A Giveaway (Closed)

Oh joy! My lilacs are in bloom and the scent is heavenly. My shrubs are FULL of blooms this year. We had a tough winter here so I worried that the lilacs wouldn't be at their best but they absolutely are.

I have four common lilac shrubs planted in a row and, really, there's nothing common about them! I am always amazed that there are so many shades of purple and pink in their blooms.  Really gorgeous. They are planted at the side of the house that doesn't have any windows so I need to go outside to see them. Their scent reaches our back door though and provides a strong incentive to walk around the side of the house and visit them often.

They were planted almost fourteen years ago now and have grown to be so tall and majestic. Their habit of sending up suckers in surrounding flower beds is a little annoying but a small penalty to pay to enjoy their beauty.

In honour of my lovely lilacs, I am giving away a pair of my lilac cards (one each of my Lilacs and Lilac Sprig images). All you have to do is leave a comment below and I will choose one winner here on June 1st (noon EDT). Because the lilacs' scent has gone to my head, I'm also giving away pairs on Instagram and Facebook. So you can increase your chances of winning by commenting there too.

Giveaway results (June 1, 2014):

I think it is so nice that the random number generator I used for my giveaway happened to pick locations around the world. :)

Blog winner: Jessica in the United States

Facebook winner: Maribel in Spain

Instagram winner: Sharon in Australia

Thank you to everyone who entered. Thanks especially for your lovely comments. Here's to lilac love!

If my hand looks a little awkward in this photo, it's because I took the photo with my iPad.
I had my iPad steadied on my outstretched arm. Artist and acrobat.

 ❤  ❤  ❤

In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash'd palings,

Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,

With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love,

With every leaf a miracle - and from this bush in the dooryard,

With delicate-color'd blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,

A sprig with its flower I break.

From Walt Whitman's 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d' (Leaves of Grass)

When Art Finds A Home

Last night, a customer bought my 'Lilac Sprig' original watercolour as well as a 'Ladybug' print on Etsy. Selling an original always brings mixed emotions. I've talked about this before and other artists have said the same thing--it can be hard to decide to put originals on sale. They are part of us. It's especially hard when it is a painting we are really happy with like this one. On the other hand, a drawer full of paintings that aren't shared with anyone doesn't make much sense either. I've sold many originals over the years and always deal with a tug at my heart when I do it. Some I hold on to longer than others. I also think it's important to keep some. 

I painted this one last May using a sprig from my garden as a reference (not the same sprig that's at the top of the photo but very close). I used beautiful handmade paper from Twinrocker.

I had tears in my eyes when I saw the sale yesterday: happiness at having my art connect with someone, sadness at having to say goodbye to a loved painting.

I sent an email to the customer thanking her for her purchase as I always do. She answered with the loveliest note and told me that it was the first piece of original art she has ever bought for her home. I was so touched to learn that and I can't stop smiling. My painting has found just the right home. ❤

Lilac Painting

And it's finished!

I posted in-progress photos of my lilac watercolour yesterday. Here's the final painting.  I really tried not to add too much detail and to keep things loose and suggested. (Not my normal way of painting down to very last line and dot!)

Detail of Lilacs

The page views of my blog have a good chance of topping 10,000 this weekend. It's just over nine months since I started my blog. I just wanted to say thank you to each and every one of you who comes here. It means so very much to me.

Have a happy holiday weekend (for those of you with one) and a wonderful ordinary one for those without!

Torn

Trowel or paintbrush...or spade?  I've definitely been torn in past days. I didn't look after my garden the way I normally do last year because I was involved in a huge volunteer project for my youngest daughter's class in May and June. So I am definitely committed to getting my garden up and running in a more respectable way this year.  The biggest task right now is cleaning up my vegetable garden, an even bigger job than normal because of it having been so horribly neglected last year. I'm taking photos as I go, so I will post a step-by-step transformation of my sweet little veggie patch in the next week or so.

Here are some violas from the veggie garden dug up and ready to be transferred to pots and other parts of the garden

So I have my vegetable garden as well as flower beds to clean up. Seeds to sow. Annuals to plant. And yet there are so many lovely things begging to be painted in the garden right now! Like lilacs. Oh, if you could smell them.  I can't walk through the backyard without stopping to bury my nose in them.

I cut some to paint a couple of days ago.  I started my painting in a very loose way with lots of water on the paper. Then I added paint and let it spread in a pretty free way.  It's not my normal approach but I felt the need to do things in a less structured way. Maybe because of all of the emotion of last week. I'm using a different paper (my experiments continue!) and I quite like this one. It's Fabriano Artistico 300 lb. hot press paper. It has a very smooth surface. It is noticeably smoother than the equivalent 300 lb. Arches paper.

This is just after the initial washes and a first few details were added

This morning I had planned to continue my work in the garden, but then I realized that if I didn't work on my lilac painting, the lilacs flowers would be gone. That's the thing with a spring garden. There is constant change and the blooms of one week are gone the next.  Even just two days later, I had to go out and cut new branches to use as my references. The first ones were already wilting. That's a flower that I wish would last a little longer in a vase.

Here's my work on it this morning.  You can see how I'm starting to add more detail. One lovely side benefit of painting lilacs is that you get to smell them as you paint!

I'm writing this while listening to birds chirp outside and sipping on green tea steeped with fresh mint leaves from the garden. How I love this time of year. Now up to the studio to continue work on my painting!