Hello, Garden. I've Been Waiting For You.

My garden is waking up again. Each trip outside brings intense moments of joy as I discover more plants inching their way up through the soil and bits of autumn debris, first revealing green tips and then, a few days later, the flowers with their beautiful colours. Goodbye grey and brown! The crocuses in the backyard were the first to emerge. Now they have started to bloom in the front too. There are dwarf irises and scilla too. Interesting that the tiniest flowers are the most courageous ones, daring to appear when the snow has barely melted.

I often say that 'I need my garden and my garden needs me'. This year, it could not be more true. I found this winter to be tough. Ever since the U.S. election, I've been feeling a lot of anxiety about the world. That made it hard to think that painting flowers was important when there were so many scary things going on. I got stuck for a little while. But I think I've come to terms with the fact that small things are important. Like paying attention to nature. Celebrating it. Respecting and nurturing it. Creating art. Painting flowers. Being true to myself. All of these things are valid and positive ways to contribute to the world.

I don't make a big income with my art but I have also tried the last few months to contribute, when I can, to organizations who are trying to make a difference in the world. I believe that tiny gestures do count and they are a way of being engaged in positive change.

Those of you who follow me on Instagram will know that the past few weeks have been particularly stressful as my dog Meeko needed to have unexpected abdominal surgery four weeks ago, just days after his seventh birthday. What seemed like minor digestive issues initially were actually much more serious. He has been diagnosed with a chronic intestinal condition. There were some very emotional days the week of his surgery but I am happy to report that he is doing really well. With medication and a strict diet, our vet is confident that his condition can be controlled. He got his stitches out a week ago and we can now go on our walks together again. He is happy and acting like himself (once again monitoring the neighbourhood squirrels and cats). I am so glad to have my buddy by my side again.

Oh! And another bit of good news. My tea cards were featured in the May 2017 issue of Romantic Homes magazine. It's a really lovely magazine and the May issue is available on newsstands now.

Today I picked the first garden bouquet of this year. It contains dwarf irises, crocuses and a scilla sprig. It was a way to celebrate Easter and the return of my garden. An emissary of more positive days ahead. A sweet handful of hope.

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.

❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

A Flowery Blue Sea

I love so many flowers but I have a real soft spot for blue flowers. I also love tiny things. My mother says that when I was a baby I used to ignore toys and become completely enraptured with a tiny speck of something. My eye for detail and appreciation of small things have apparently been with me for a very long time! Forget-me-nots fulfill so many loves.

The photo of Meeko above was taken at the edge of a park near us. There is a house that backs onto the park in that spot. Their entire backyard is covered with forget-me-nots! They spill into the park beside. It is the most exquisite sight--like a soft blue cloud. Meeko sat beside me while I took photos. He's so patient when I use my camera although that rightward turn of his head suggests that he is most likely thinking of the squirrels he often sees in the park a bit beyond.

5 x 7 print of my 'Forget-Me-Nots' print

I don't pick bouquets in the big patch of forget-me-nots in the top photo. It feels too much like it's part of a private garden even though it's in a public park. There is a patch of forget-me-nots beside one of the little paths I walk with Meeko. That's where I pick small bouquets. The houses are far away so I don't feel that I'm depriving anyone by picking a few stems.

I also have forget-me-nots in my garden but they are in a very shady spot and haven't bloomed yet although they have buds. Something to look forward to. 

Having fresh forget-me-nots was the perfect reason to retake photos of my forget-me-not print. I am trying whenever possible to incorporate the actual subject of my paintings with my photos. That is not very easily done during our winter months so I have to hurry while things are still in bloom!

I also recently completed a painting of blue scilla that makes the perfect companion to my forget-my-not print--two beautiful blue spring flowers. If you haven't looked at my new website, I hope you'll have a peek. I have added many new items over the past few weeks. 

Blue flower spring duet

Henry David Thoreau wrote of forget-me-nots, "It is one of the most interesting minute flowers. It is the more beautiful for being small and unpretending; even flowers must be modest." I love that. I love them.

❤  ❤  ❤  ❤  ❤

A Spring Walk in the Woods

Meeko and I went for a walk in the woods near our house this morning. These are the same snow-covered woods that you have seen in my blog countless times. In the spring and summer, it is usually too boggy to walk there. We have had such warm and dry weather the past few days that the pathway was completely accessible. Well actually, it was a little squishy in places but walkable if you stepped carefully. I let Meeko lead the way.

What a treat to see the spring version of these woods and all of the lovely plant life there. There were trout lilies everywhere. Such elegant little flowers. I also saw these delicate white flowers. I think they are some type of heuchera. I love the little bit of fluff attached to its side. 

I exclaimed out loud when I saw the next flowers! Meeko looked around as he thought that such an excited voice must mean a squirrel or other small creature. Nope. Not a four-legged creature. What I had seen was a trillium!

I put my head right down on the ground to take this photo. Then I had to pick the leaves out of my hair afterwards! Completely worth it. What a beautiful flower. I've seen trilliums often where my parents live in Northern Ontario. I didn't know that there were some within walking distance of my home! So exciting.

Everything looked beautiful in the morning light. I loved the curved pattern of these little tufts of grass and the lovely pairing of this trout lily and the heuchera.

What a beautiful way to start a morning. I haven't stopped smiling since.

❤  ❤  ❤  ❤  ❤

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.

The Flowers of May

Along with getting my garden on its feet (that's an odd idiom), I have succeeded in painting a little the past week. I get so torn this time of year. Garden? Paint? Garden? Paint? Some of the spring flowers are so fleeting that they need to be painted or else I have to wait for next year. But my garden can run away on me (those feet again) if I don't get it under control at the beginning of the season.

Our back lawn is covered with wood violets right now. They are so pretty and I much prefer them to the dandelions which are also vying for my attention right now. I dug out a little clump of the violets and potted them so I would have to time to paint them. I am not a quick painter. I never have been. Too detail-oriented for that I guess. Below is my painting in progress and at the very top is my finished wood violet study on Twinrocker hot-pressed watercolor paper.

The paper wasn't completely flat when I finished the painting so I placed it under a pile of big art books. I really didn't pay attention to them at the time. They were serving a utilitarian rather than literary purpose. It was only when I retrieved my painting afterwards that I noticed the top book "The Flowers of May" with a watercolour painting of violets on its cover! I had distractedly chosen the perfect paperweight!

While it would be easy to assume that "The Flowers of May" is a celebration of this month's flowers, it actually pays tribute to a wonderful botanical artist named Caroline May who lived from 1809 until 1874. She painted delicate, beautiful watercolours of British wildflowers. About a thousand paintings of her paintings have survived. This book contains reproductions of ninety of them. I hadn't looked inside this book in years.  Look at Caroline May's painting of wood violets that she refers to as 'Dog's Violet'. Isn't it lovely? I'm so glad I saw it after and not before I had completed my own painting. It was a beautiful moment of serendipity in my week.

Within the same lovely purple palette, my lilacs (Syringa vulgaris) are in full bloom right now. I adore their fragrance and can't resist burying my nose in them each time I pass. You do have to be careful though. Yesterday my nose came very close to a giant bumble bee!

I am very fond of purple, especially blue-purple. My favourite colour is periwinkle (which is somewhere in between purple and blue). The lilac blooms have wonderful combinations of purple, blue and hints of pink. It's just amazing the gradation of colour in each little blossom. With their scent and colour, they are pretty close to a perfect flower for me.

I picked a small lilac sprig to paint. I actually had to pick more than one over the course of finishing my painting as lilacs wilt very quickly.

Here is my lilac sprig painting also painted on Twinrocker paper. The lilac in the photo is not the one I used as my reference for my painting but it's very similar. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a 'click and sniff' button so I could share their sweet, heady fragrance with you? ♥

Spring Flowers

I'm getting a little braver about letting some of my originals go. I just listed this tiny original watercolour in my Etsy shop. I love muscari (also known as grape hyacinth) for its beautiful colour, fragrance and delicate form. As far as behaviour goes, it can be a little rambunctious in the garden, so every now and then I need to round the bulbs up. But I couldn't imagine my garden without it.

I took the above photo yesterday on our backstep. If I had taken it today, it would have been against a backdrop of snow. We had more overnight and it is still coming down. (Meeko is happy.) Thoughts of my garden get pretty intense at this time of year. Looking at past paintings of spring flowers helps while I dream of the real thing.

Dwarf iris, muscari and tulip paintings from past springs.