Custom Garden Painting: process

scenes from the weekend

I can't help but love this summer. It's been rainy and warm, then cool and breezy and perfect for opening the studio windows. At this point the flowers have overtaken most of the garden in such a perfect way (although the garden in the photo is unfortunately not my own).

Our neighbor's kids have been popping over more often to accompany me while I paint or to watch me make dinner and steal a snack or two. But mostly they've been begging to ride Tag. Kids at their age (7 and 11) are so much fun to be around- so full of energy and enthusiasm it really makes me feel old! Since Seth and I have no kids of our own, we've been equally happy and confused as to why they'd want to hang out with us so much. I think Tag might have something to do with it. ;)

chocolate zucchini bread

Summer seems so abundant this year. My parents have this huge garden and every time I visit I come home with a bag of vegetables. Yesterday my neighbors were out trimming their bushes and tending to their own vegetable garden that runs along the border of our yards. She saw me busy in the studio and came around to my window to give me two of the biggest zucchinis I'd ever seen, a bundle of kale, and little ripe cherry tomatoes still warm from the sun.

So when the evening rolled around I turned on The Bachelorette (guilty pleasure) and shredded the zucchini for this delicious chocolate bread recipe.

Do you have a garden this year? If so, what sort of things have you planted?

Spring is here!



Spring Green {Plant}
6x6 in Watercolor on paper, mounted

This past weekend I came across this very mysterious herbaceous plant called Pilea cadierei among the Exotic Angel plants.

The leaves are dark green and highly textured with rigid red veins.

It looks like the type of plant you'd find in the middle of the woods among the moss covered rocks under a cluster of giant trees.

There's just something so unusual about it that intrigues me.

I've added it to my collection on my kitchen counter where I can touch its leaves and watch it grow every day.  It is seriously the strangest little plant.

But enough about my strange new pet!

Are you excited to greet Spring today?  Have you been fantasizing about gardens and herbs and terrariums like I have?  Have you been pouring over seed catalogs and dreaming about ferns and flowers?  What sort of plants and flowers and vegetables are you going to plant this year?

I've been collecting tiny bottles lately in hope of someday creating something resembling this:

I think I'm becoming obsessed with indoor plants.  They add so much character and life to our home!

And then I want to paint them all!  Emerald and sap green are among my very favorite paint tubes.  There's just no way they'll make it through this Spring alive.  I hope you like them as much as I do because you're bound to see much more bright green Spring paintings very soon.

Happy Spring everyone!