Gardening and Art

I am still working on my painting “The Art of Gardening” . I still have a ways to go, but it is getting there. This piece brings together many of the components that make our garden a work of art. A large portion of the piece is filled with the glorious Morning Glories that grow on our back fence. These flowers are so delicate and such a vibrant shade of blue, with just a touch of lavender. The morning blooms are really a site to see against their odd shaped leaves. This piece represents not only how lovely these flowers are, but the artistry with which they can totally take over an area. Even when you think you have tamed them, the vines can quickly become out of control.  These beauties can put out runners 20 feet from the mother plant. My husband just sighs every time he goes into our side yard. I’m pretty sure, if it wasn’t for those glorious flowers, he would have pull them all up a long time ago. The always vibrant sunflowers and the hardy zinnias add splashes of color throughout our garden, just as they do on the canvas. Their yellows and oranges are spectacular. No garden is complete without a little recycled or renewed “garden art”. I have lots of this bits and pieces of  “garden art”, throughout my yard. Glass bottles of different colors, old birdhouses in different shapes and sizes; each flower, plant, and object, all come together to create my garden masterpiece, both on and off the canvas. For more information on Morning Glories, check out the following link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_glory

Beginning to paint

I have decided it is time to get back to painting. Well, I have been painting, but on grand children’s nursery walls, which I love, but, when I wasn’t painting on walls, nothing to do but I decided I would make a couple of small quilts. What was I thinking? Well enough is enough, I have to start a new piece. I miss my time in front of a canvas. It is my opportunity to use the talent that God has given me, to attempt to capture his magnificent creations. As Erma Bombeck said ” When I stand before God at the end of my life I would hope that I would have not a single bit of talent left and could say, “I used everything you gave me.”  I hope I can say the same thing.

This new piece will be called “The Art of Gardening”, it is a 36″ x 48″ gallery wrapped canvas and has some of my favorite things in it. There are the Morning Glories on our back fence, sunflowers in our side garden, my old cobalt blue and yellow bottles, my potted plants, and not to forget a butterfly! So here it is sketched out, it’s kind of rough, but the painting has started! I’ll keep you up to date on it’s progress.

The Sketch

Sunflowers and Summer

This is a commissioned piece I just completed for a client. My client, who is the owner of Summer I, incurred some damage to that painting and wanted me to repaint the piece for them. I changed it up a bit and added some new elements. The bold red geraniums and the sun touched sunflowers are still present, but sitting amongst them is a delicate Cloudless Sulphur butterfly, perched atop a geranium; just taking in a few rays. This piece is 48″ x 48″, acrylic on 1 1/2 inch gallery wrapped canvas.

Sunflower Summer in progress

A couple of weeks ago, at a GAP meeting, I had the opportunity to speak with a fellow artist, I had met at a GAP show last summer. She wanted to get together, visit and share ideas. So, I invited a couple of other artists, I had met recently and we set a date. We met at the Corner Bakery, had some lunch and then spent about 2 hours brainstorming. We shared ideas, encouragements, fears and frustrations. It was such a great experience. Those opportunities to share real life experiences of doing art, marketing your art and building an art business with other artist are priceless. I came away with some great ideas, three new friends and a date to meet again next month. You can find information about two of the artists and there work below:

http://www. shellyburden.com

http://paintpalettecolors.blogspot.com

Sunflowers and Gulf Fritillary Butterfly 8 x 8 acrylic on canvas

I am just about finished with my small canvas “Sunflowers and Gulf Fritillary Butterfly”. I have just a little bit of detail work to do, but it is almost there.  I was surprised at the time it took to do this small canvas. From beginning to end it was about a days worth of painting. For some reason, I feel like with such a small canvas, it shouldn’t take that long, but the detail work is time consuming. Oh well, I enjoyed working small and will probably do some more. The star in this painting is the Gulf Fritillary, which is a Brush-footed Butterfly, this family of butterflies is very large with about 3,000 species worldwide. This lovely bright orange member is found primarily in the South.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, the caterpillars of the Gulf Fritillary, love passion flowers. One of these vines in your yard and some nectar flowers will provide a nice habitat for these beauties.

8 x 8 canvas

I’ve decided to start work on some small canvases, after finishing my last 36″ x 48″ Painted Lady. I have two going right now, an orange zinnia, which is one of my favorite flowers, this is on a 12″ x 12″ canvas and a gulf fritillary on an 8″ x 8″ canvas. I really love painting the large canvases, but the small allow me to really concentrate on the details and I am a detail person. With Christmas around the corner, I’m not finding much time to paint, but I am more than enjoying the trade off, time with family and friends, whom I love dearly! Wishing the best of the Holidays to all.

12 x 12 canvas

"The Painted Lady"

I have finally finished my painting “The Painted Lady”.  The focal point of this piece is of coarse, the Painted Lady Butterfly. This is one of the most familiar butterflies in North America, as well as around the world.  If you want to attract these pretty ladies to your yard, plant thistle, hollyhocks, common sunflowers, yarrow and mallows. The butterfly will lay their eggs on these plants and the larvae ie. caterpillars will feast on these when they hatch out.  The painted lady has to lay her eggs on or very near the right food plant for the eggs, otherwise the caterpillars will not survive. These babies have a ferocious appetite and begin eating as soon as they hatch. The sweet nectar plants for the painted beauties are thistles, asters, cosmos, blazing stars, iron-weed, and Joe-pye weed. Try planting a few of the host plants and nectar plants in your butterfly garden. For those plants that are invasive or less attractive, plant in containers, creating a smorgasbord for the painted ladies. Butterflies are threatened more and more everyday by loss of habitat, plant some host and nectar plants for butterfly conservation!

The beginning.

I am now working on a 36 x 48 acrylic on canvas. My inspiration was a painted lady butterfly that was taking advantage of the sweet nectar of a zinnia in our side yard. I was able to get within inches of her. I am always amazed at the creative power of God, the detail right down to the iridescent glow on her back. All the flowers are found in our front, side and back yard, zinnias and sunflowers, all of which are absolutely spectacular when in mass. The zinnias are such a deep, rich red. I am included pictures to show the progression of my work. I’m beginning to see the light at the end, however I still have a lot more work to do on the leaves and more detail work to do on the flowers, well back to painting.

Near the end.

Work continues.