Winding Down the Year

Milkweed pods (Asclepias syriaca), watercolor, 21"h x 14"w.

 

As I think about my activities on this blog in the past year, I'm surprised at the ways in which my garden has progressed over the course of these past twelve months. Not just the growing plants, the flowers and vegetables cultivated, but also the cultivation of my art, the work of the hands and mind which nourishes my spirit. I feel so fortunate to have these fountains of inspiration in my life!

The milkweed piece above was started in late November, and is well on it's way to being finished. The colored pencil drawing of the pumpkin Musquee de Provence is complete, as is the iris "Afternoon Delight."

 

Musquee de Provence, colored pencil, 10"h x 14"w.

The Flame Azalea and Pollinator watercolor I worked on over the summer was finally resolved with a very dark muted background--not sure just how successfully. I may deal with the same theme again next year with a traditional botanical white background just for the sake of comparison.

Flame Azalea and Pollinator, watercolor, 7.5"h x 10.5"w.

The Botanical Gourmet exhibition at the Athaneaum in Alexandria, which I organized and managed over the course of the past year, will be on display until Jan. 8, 2023. The show has received some positive mentions in articles in the Washington Post and the Metro Weekly. 

Painting my piece for this show, the Galeux d'Eysines Pumpkin absorbed a good amount of time in the garden as well as in my studio. My learning of my subject took place over the course of a year, not unusual for botanical artists, who often study the plants they depict over a long period of time in order to observe the plant at all stages of its growth.

 

Exploding sketchbook.

 

Some of my projects from this year are still in my studio; I'm hoping to finish them sometime in the next few months before spring arrives. I never had a chance to add the summer and fall sketches for the exploding sketchbook, we'll see if it's possible for me to add a few more to it. This is one project that could stretch out over several years, just like my perpetual botanical journals. 

One more thing: I changed the blog banner again for a refreshed look in the New Year. Happy 2023!

Christmas Decorations

 

It's that time of the year again, time for the annual photo of our house decorated for Christmas. This year the outdoor lights are almost the same as last year's, except that I added a garland of colored lights to the porch railing. Is it me, or does our neighborhood seem a bit lackluster this year? Inflation is definitely making inroads in everyone's budget.

 

 

Our tree is much smaller this year--with fresh-cut trees being so expensive, this was the best we could afford this year (FJB!). I like to think of it as our mini-tree...

 

 

Merry Christmas, y'all!

Lawn to Forest

 

Forest Scene, colored pencil.

 

Recently the Virginia Native Plant Society asked me to do some illustrations for a brochure they are developing called "Your Lawn Wants to be a Forest." The idea is to encourage homeowners to turn an ordinary dull lawn into something more environmentally inviting by planting native trees and other vegetation. Or, by simply not mowing the lawn, allow it to develop into a meadow, which will eventually grow into a forest.

 

Left Hand Meadow, colored pencil.

 

It's a challenge to find a way to illustrate the concepts in the brochure, and I loved our graphic designer's tip of using color in just some places for accent, rather than over all. This wonderful idea allows me to do a detailed drawing of the plants in sepia pencil, and then bring in touches of color to pop up and call attention to elements of the plants and associated pollinators.

 

Right Hand Meadow, colored pencil.

 

I created the sketches using plants from my own garden and the surrounding woods. I have lots of photos of these--it's impossible for me to draw a plant accurately from memory, I need to have a photo or the real plant in front of me to be botanically accurate, which is essential for an assignment like this.

Unfortunately, the last sketch has proved problematic--it seems that the common mullein, which I see all around our area and in my garden, is not a native. So, I'll have to try to find a way to turn that mullein into some other native plant.

The interesting thing as I read the text of the brochure, is to realize that my gardening efforts have instinctively followed its advice, except that I haven't confined myself to all native trees and shrubs. As an eclectic plant lover, I have a predilection for Japanese maples, as well as flora from the southwest and western states and I've indulged it with some success. 

Not all the plants I buy native to our western regions have prospered here--as I've learned, our native clay soils are too dense for some of these plants, but it's fun to experiment and see what will do well here.

Recent Art and New Projects

Iris 'Afternoon Delight' watercolor, 21"h x 13.5"w.

 

Now that fall is winding down, with the approach of winter I tend to spend more time in my studio. There are still have a few garden chores to do--spring flowering bulbs to be replanted--which will have to wait for some warmer days to complete. But, more time in the studio gave me the opportunity to finish the iris 'Afternoon Delight' that I'd started earlier in the summer.

And, I have new pieces on the way. I found another heirloom pumpkin among the local fall displays that was just lovely! Its intricate shape, colors and the bloom on it cried out for this one to be rendered in colored pencils. I'm using a piece of left-over hot-pressed Saunders Waterford paper, perhaps not the best for this kind of drawing, but, why not?

I learned that this variety of pumpkin is called Musquee de Provence, and with two memorable trips to Provence in mind, I decided to "pose" my pumpkin with some dried lavender sprigs and a sheaf of wheat I had hanging around. Here's a photo of my set-up.

 

Musquee de Provence pumpkin photo.

The sun coming in through the window gives a dramatic lighting effect which I like. I started my drawing with a dark sepia pencil, and did some shading for a grisaille underdrawing, then started adding touches of color.

 

Musquee de Provence - Stage 1

Continuing to add more color, wheat sheaves, deepening the hues and shadows.

Musquee de Provence, colored pencil - Stage 2

Musquee de Provence, colored pencil - Stage 3

At this point I was looking for some advice on how to get the effect of the bloom on the surface of the pumpkin. It was a great subject to bring up at our regularly scheduled Zoom meeting with my colored pencil peeps--the Chickahominy Colored Pencil Artists. Judy had some excellent suggestions which I'll be trying out over the next week or so to bring this puppy to a conclusion.

 

Pages from Botanical Journal, Year 2

 

The first week of October was the one-year anniversary for the Botanical Journal I started last year, and I continue to have fun filling my sketchbook with the objects I find around my garden as well as those I collect on my wanderings on the home turf. The pages above had three sketches from last year, and now two more--the flowering stem of one of my new houseplants, Echevarria 'Lady Aquarius,' and a prickly seed pod I found right by the door of our polling place. I have no idea what plant that prickly seed pod develops from, but it's scary-looking!

 

Page from Botanical Journal, Year 2

Last weekend I went out with the Virginia Native Plant Society (VNPS) to see some of the "big trees" in our neck of the woods. We met at Skyland, inside Shenandoah National Park and there saw several state champion trees: a fan-leaved hawthorn tree, a Colorado Blue Spruce and a Japanese Yew (non-native, these two were planted there). From Skyland, we drove down to a place on the Shenandoah River called Foster's Landing where there were: one enormous persimmon tree, and several Bladdernut trees, one of which is the State Champion. Bladdernuts are not exctly majestic, they're rather smallish trees that grow in wet sites such as riverbanks. The bladdernuts in the sketch above were collected from that site.

Our last stop was in Luray, to see the centenary Chinquapin oak there--now there' s one beautiful, majestic tree! It's estimated to be over 300 years old. I plan to stop again in the spring to sketch it, perhaps do a plein aire painting of it. I'm gong to need a big sheet of paper!

Luray's famous Chinquapin oak

My friend Kristin and I under the massive oak.

Late Fall Color

Viburnum 'Cardinal Candy'

 

This year we've had a very colorful fall and the show isn't over yet. There's still color in them there leaves! 

Fothergilla with aromatic asters.

Some plants are just beginning to reach their peak of color now in early November, like the Fothergilla in the photo above. I wish the asters next to it were a bit bloomier, but the color combination never fails to amaze me. 

 

Aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium)

My original aromatic aster continues to produce prodigious blooms--the pollinators love it, it's about the only flower that lasts this late into the fall.

 

Japanese maples on east side

Japanese maples l. to r.: Bloodgood, no Id, Full Moon

Much of my labors in the garden each fall consists of expanding and consilidating my flower beds. This year it was time to dig up the Mount Hood daffodils under the Japanese maple 'Amber Ghost' that were over-crowded. I extended the bed out and joined the 'Texas White' redbud tree to make it part of the same bed before replanting the daffodils and grape hyacinths beneath the trees.

 

Reworked bed with 'Amber Ghost' and 'Texas White' redbud.

Next spring I'll consolidate this enlarged bed with the one behind it, for one much larger island bed. The Shasta daisies in the Badlands bed didn't bloom much this year, despite the generous summer rains, so I'll probably transplant those and put them in the grassy strip that will unite those two beds on the west side of the back yard.

 

The "Badlands' in late October.

Other spring-flowering bulbs also need to be dug up, thinned and re-planted. I hope the glorious weather will hold out long enough for me to get this done before the ground freezes hard. I wonder what sort of winter is in store for us?

 

The front yard in late October.