Happy Spring!

Happy spring, friends! You know how much I love this time of year! My garden is still sleeping although I'm seeing little signs of life--the tiny tips of bulbs poking through the earth. There is snow predicted for later this week, so we aren't quite in spring weather mode yet.

I'm taking part in a spring giveaway loop on Instagram with eleven other makers and I wanted you to know about it. I'm giving away a set of my daffodil prints and it's very easy to enter. You can see the instructions here. (The giveaway closes at noon eastern time on March 23, 2016.)

Last week, Instagram announced that it will be changing our feeds from chronological order to what they think we want to see most. Uh huh. As if we asked. I feel brain cells disappearing with each 'helpful' algorithm introduced on social media sites. We all know it's really about money and it will very likely make it harder for individuals and small companies to be seen. It's sad to think that Instagram will turn into another Facebook--although with Facebook as its owner, I knew it was just a matter of time. I love Instagram so much. It's such a warm, creative place. I hope that it won't lose all of its charm and will still be a place where creative folks can meet. We will see.

My indoor potted daffodils have given me so much pleasure this past month as I waited for spring to arrive. The first daffodil bloomed on February 25th and there are still new ones opening each day. In the autumn, I layered a whole bunch of mixed daffodil bulbs in three big pots that I usually have outdoors for summer annuals. I can't wait to see the bulbs I planted outdoors too. There's so much anticipation this time of year.

And in other news, this bundle of curls turned six years old last week! Meeko is such an important part of our family. His daily companionship means the world to me.

I wish you a lovely spring (or autumn if you are in the southern hemisphere)! If you'd like to see more of my spring art, you can see it here.

❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

Hello March!

Hello, March. We meet again...somewhere between snow and sunshine, ice and flowers.

There's a blizzard on the way tonight. Don't worry! I brought my vintage jar back inside right after I took the photos. I keep it by our dining room window and have been enjoying watching the bulbs' progress.

I also have a big pot of daffodils blooming just inside the back door. I wish you could smell them. They are wonderfully fragrant. Doesn't it look like they are huddled together looking out and talking about the weather? Like the rest of us.

Emma and Chloé both have their March break this week. I suppose it's not the worst time for a blizzard. They both have a huge number of assignments to complete for school although they've found a bit of time for baking too. I've been busy with my shop, when I'm not dreaming of snow melting and spring flowers blooming that is.

I recently organized my art by the season. If you are aching for spring too, you can have a look here.

Happy March, everyone!

❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

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!

❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

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

Unfrozen

With Valentine's Day over, I changed my Facebook profile photo from a heart painting to one I did of a snowdrop about seven or eight years ago. I've used it as a profile photo before.

Seeing it on my Facebook page made me want to get out the original painting. I still have it in one of my studio drawers. It's one of those paintings that I think I will hold onto forever as it has special significance to me.

It was the first painting I did after a long creative hiatus. Emma had just started high school. Chloé was still in elementary school. I hadn't painted for a few years and I was feeling very stuck. I wanted to start creating art again but had somehow convinced myself that I couldn't. I was spending an unreasonable amount of time reading books on painting techniques and consulting art websites (I spent weeks on 'Handprint'--an amazing source of information on watercolour paints and materials.)

The thing is that I already knew how to paint. I had painted for decades previously. What I needed to do was to sit down with my paper and paints and start again. (It sounds easier than it seemed to me at the time.)

This snowdrop painting was the first watercolour I completed after that period. I wasn't trying to choose a subject with deep meaning. I just sifted through reference photos I had taken of flowers in my garden and selected it.

Without trying to choose a subject with a deep meaning, I did. The snowdrop (Galanthus) is one of the first flowers to emerge in the garden after the winter. What better subject could I have chosen after a long period of creative block.

I still like the painting. It is simple and elegant.

It seems like the perfect image of hope as I deal with my annual case of February blues and as many of us deal with this difficult winter. In Montreal, we have had ongoing snow accumulation and intense cold but nothing like the extraordinary blizzards and snowfalls on the east coast of Canada and the US. I feel for you.

If you need a little spring encouragement, I sell my snowdrop image both as a print and note card.

My 5 x 7 snowdrop print

Snowdrop note cards

Here's to spring flowers, hope and becoming unfrozen.

❤  ❤  ❤

TO A SNOWDROP 

LONE Flower, hemmed in with snows and white as they 
But hardier far, once more I see thee bend 
Thy forehead, as if fearful to offend, 
Like an unbidden guest. Though day by day, 
Storms, sallying from the mountain-tops, waylay 
The rising sun, and on the plains descend; 
Yet art thou welcome, welcome as a friend 
Whose zeal outruns his promise! Blue-eyed May 
Shall soon behold this border thickly set 
With bright jonquils, their odours lavishing 
On the soft west-wind and his frolic peers; 
Nor will I then thy modest grace forget, 
Chaste Snowdrop, venturous harbinger of Spring, 
And pensive monitor of fleeting years! 

William Wordsworth (1819)


I also wrote about my snowdrop painting in this post from 2012: 
http://trowelandpaintbrush.blogspot.ca/2012/03/spring-garden.html

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.

Spring, Where Are You?

Winter weary. Frost fatigued. Ice impatient. It's interesting how the very people who look forward to winter's first magical snowfall can be the same ones who don't want to see one more single snowflake at the season's end. Count me in. I am tired of wearing boots, hats and mittens. I don't want to scrape ice off the car's windshield one more time or shovel the front steps. I'm finding it hard seeing photos of blossoming trees and plants in others' blogs and Instagram feeds. I am aching to see my garden.

Although the calendar says spring arrived here about a week ago, this is still very much winter weather.

And yet, once temperatures rise, Meeko and I will no longer be able to take our daily forest walks. The little forest at our street's end will be too wet and swampy in a matter of days or weeks to walk in. So, I realized that instead of hating the last few days of this long, long winter, I should be cherishing its final moments. So I shifted my focus and my mood followed. Interesting. A recipe perhaps for other areas of my life?

I took these photos near the end of the day two days ago while trying to drink in the beauty of the snow, shadows and light. I thought about the freedom and joy that these forest walks give Meeko several months a year. I thought about the times I laugh out loud at Meeko's crazy antics in the snow or his goofy expression as he runs back to my side on the path. I thought about the welcome break these walks give me in my day and the peacefulness they provide to my spirit.

Oh spring, I can't wait for you to come but do you know what winter, I'm actually going to miss you.

The sun goes down and one season slowly concedes to another.

“It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want—oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!” 
― Mark Twain

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.

Forest Legend

Well hello there! I can't believe it's been a week and a half since I posted last.  Just after my last post celebrating the return of spring flowers to my garden, there was a big April snowstorm. I think it knocked the spring breeze right out of me! I certainly wasn't about to post more snow photos here. I haven't been idle though. I've been painting quite a bit and enjoying myself too.

I've been working on the painting at the top the past few days. It is special in several ways. First of all, it was painted in gouache rather than watercolour. I had a few tubes of rarely used gouache in my painting drawer but have just invested in a wider range of colours. The scene I painted is very special to me. Meeko and I walk on the same forest path all winter long. I thought I had every curve in the path and tree trunk memorized, but no. All of a sudden I came upon this gorgeous tree with a beautiful heart shape on its trunk. I gasped out loud when I saw it off to the side of our path. The heart, the gnarly bark, the gorgeous green lichen all made this tree trunk look more alive than all of the trunks around it. I didn't post the photo I took of it anywhere. I didn't want anyone to take it. I've actually been using it as my desktop image the past few weeks while I gathered the courage to paint it. I chose to use gouache as I wanted it to be a strong painting and for the heart tree to have plenty of character. I put the final few details on it this morning. The image measures 8 x 10 inches and it is painted on 300 lb Arches watercolour paper. There's a close-up of the trunk below. I am calling the painting "Legend has it she gave her heart to the forest".

The day of the snowstorm, I gathered bouquets of crocuses and scilla from the garden just before the snow began to fall. I even plucked some bulbs right out of the ground. (Crazy lady!) I took a crocus bulb because I wanted to paint it. I took several muscari bulbs because I wanted to see if I could force them to bloom a little faster inside the house if I 'planted' them in fish gravel with water up to their roots. It's working!

Here's the crocus painting I started the day of the storm and finished over the next couple of days.  (I'm such a slow painter.) It's painted on gorgeous feather-deckle Twinrocker watercolour paper. I made it complicated for myself by choosing a bulb that had two intertwined stems but I'm happy with the way it turned out. It's the first time I've included a bulb in a painting.

Good news! My flowers all survived the late snow cover. The garden is coming alive again. Leaf buds are swelling. The birds are singing. Here's a pretty little bouquet of botanical tulips I picked yesterday. The blue in the background is scilla. From me to you! Have a lovely week!

My garden wakes up and I move forward

How do you spell joyful? How do you spell happy? How do you spell uplifted spirits? I believe they are all spelled G-A-R-D-E-N.

These photos were taken this morning on a little stroll through my back and front gardens. I mention the backyard first because that's usually where my walks begin--out the back door with Meeko by my side. This time of year is bursting with daily changes. I do regular inspections of shoots and buds knowing that more and more blossoms are on their way. The anticipation is delicious. The birds have been so loud (in a good way) the past few days. They are my marker that spring has truly arrived. There was a little song sparrow earlier today singing his little heart out. He perches in the neighbour's tree and I always like to imagine from year to year that it is the same little fellow. 

Spring. So much activity. So much life. So much to look forward to.

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the beautiful words of encouragement that you wrote for me after my last post. I had tears in my eyes as I read them--not of sadness, more of amazement and gratitude for the wonderful, eloquent, big-hearted bunch of people who gather here. Thank you as well for the honesty that you spoke of your own art and struggles.  There is enormous strength in knowing that we are not alone in our worries and challenges.

Many of my posts are about ordinary things on ordinary days, but I have to say that when I have spoken up about deeper and more difficult things, the response has always been quite amazing. I find it extraordinary that we are able to make connections and establish friendships in what could be a cold and impersonal forum. I was thinking that the only thing missing at times like that is a big pot of tea or coffee or a bottle of wine in the middle of the table as we share our opinions and experiences.

I've put my setback behind me and have been painting this week and finding joy and satisfaction in it. I hope you are able to find time for creative pleasures this week whatever your medium. A big, big hug to you all.