a month of painting

That's what my month of painting looks like when I lay it all out in the corner of my studio. When Dana first announced her plan to take up the challenge of painting every day (and invited anyone to join her), I was unsure if my ability to do it. But here it is, the last day of May and I only missed two days. The time flew by and I have so many more things that did not fit into each day. And oh, do I have plans for June. Jeez. Not gonna have a chance to catch my breath!

As for today's painting, the very last one for May, I did a quick little watercolor sketch of a green glass bottle.

See you all next month!

to post without a single rose

That's the challenge for today. My world is still saturated with roses, but I thought, enough already. Who needs to see yet another pink rose (well, other than me, that is)? So today's post is going to be about other things from the garden.

First off, the strawberry wasn't the only thing I harvested yesterday. I figured that it was about time to harvest some of my lettuce.

I prefer to grow mesclun salad mixes and treat them as a cut and come again crop, taking leaves as I want them.  This year it's taken its sweet time to actually grow. And the arugula has already bolted.

I tasted a flower the other day and it was deliciously spicy.  So, when I decided to cut a salad yesterday, arugula flowers were one of the things I added.

This is my preferred way to eat during the summer (I'd love to eat this way all year long!). Fill the colander with things from the garden. Supplement it with bread and olives and cheese.

Mesclun (my mix included arugula, red russian, endive, chervil, raddichio, red romaine, bibb and salad bowl green), parsley, dill, opal basil, chive flowers, arugula flowers and radishes. I dressed it with a splash of rice vinegar and some sea salt. There are few things better to eat than a salad that's just been harvested.

I did some more harvesting this morning.

I started a little too late in the day. The sun was already starting to shine on the plants which dissipates the essential oils, so I only harvested a little bit.

This bunch became three.

Then I wrapped the bunches with rubber bands (as the stems dry and shrink, the rubber bands will also contract to keep the bunches from falling apart).

Finally I used some yarn to tie the bunches to a hanger and hung the hanger in my closet to dry.  There are lots more flowers to cut. As I was cutting stems from my single plant in the back yard (my front walkway is also lined with lavender plants), roses hung over my head. The bees were buzzing in the flowers and a shadow fluttered over me. It was a huge yellow swallowtail butterfly. So beautiful. What can be better than sitting beneath rose bushes cutting lavender surrounded by bees and butterflies?

For today's painting, I decided that the short-lived arugula flowers and an arugula leaf would be my subjects.

It was fun.

I also painted something else, but it's going to be part of next month's plans, so I'm keeping it under wraps for now.

I hope you are having a wonderful week!

more flowers and painting and a red surprise

Getting tired of flowers and painting yet? I'm not.

Here are a few views from this morning.

My New Dawn rose is looking gorgeous this year. There's something so beautiful about the mix of flowers in different stages. Even the faded and petal-less flowers are lovely.

Another rose that is really starting to be beautiful this year is Brother Cadfael.

The bugs have been attacking it a bit, but one flower that was half-eaten as a bud ended up being so beautiful anyway. The fragrance is amazing.

A lot of the growth on The Mayflower needed to be cut down this spring and I was worried that the plant wouldn't recover very well. Usually it is one of my first roses to open in the spring, but it's had a slow start this year.

Now the flowers are just beginning to open. This was one of my very first David Austin roses and I'm glad that it seems to have recovered. The flowers are smaller than most other David Austin roses and have a different flower form, almost raggedy pom poms. The fragrance is very rosewater-esque.

Reading fragrance descriptions in catalogs is always a bit amusing to me. Sometimes the descriptions are very poetic and mention all sorts of fragrance notes that only a professional sniffer would be able to discern. The Alnwick Rose is described as having a "hint of raspberry" in its fragrance. The funny thing is that it does smell like raspberries.

Another fragrance I'm enjoying right now is from my neighbor's mock orange. It hangs down into the back garden area just over our checkerboard patio. It's filled with flowers this year.

They smell like jasmine to me.

And there's the lavender. I noticed today that it's just about ready for me to harvest.

The smell of lavender makes me feel so content. In truth, all herbs make me happy, though. And I love them grouped together in clay pots.

Basils, cilantro, rosemary and pineapple sage are slowly acclimating to the outdoors beside the deck with my little lemon tree. They made me happy inside and now they're making me happy outside, too!

As for today's daily painting, I turned to acrylics. I tried something different by first sketching out a design on my canvas paper square and then painting over it with some watery acrylic.

A sweet little bird surrounded by flowery vines. I have a thing about flowery vines. My little patchwork embroidery is a bird surrounded by flowery vines (it's waiting for me to finish it!).

I have a very distinct memory of drawing viney gardens as a child with my crayons. Using the yellow green and the yellow orange crayons specifically. I loved that color combination.

Today's vines didn't really work so well.

I feel as if I have no control over the acrylic paints. Maybe it's my brushes. The brushes I use for my acrylic paintings are the cheapest I could find. I'm not sure why I wanted to paint such a detailed painting with my acrylics. What I like most about my acrylic paintings is being free and loose. I added a bit of paint to a couple canvases and painted the background of one of my wooden blocks. Much more satisfying.

But not as satisfying as this:

First one. It was delicious.

Joy List Monday

• seeing my college roommate this weekend
• the fact that my backyard smells like roses
• reading good books from the library
• the fact that 2 of my purses found homes
• ideas for June

It was funny that the day that Jamie was going to come for a visit, that this was the quote of the day in my inbox:

"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them."

                                      --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Certainly is true!

It's also true that my yard smells like roses. Actually, just walking past on the sidewalk, you can smell the roses.

I wonder why that would be.

I guess it's pretty obvious.

A Shropshire Lad

William Morris

Sharifa Asma

Not exactly a difficult mystery to solve.

It feels more like the 4th of July than Memorial Day. I may have to spend some time in the shade reading. At least I have some good books to read. I had been having a hard time getting into anything lately, but this set from the library is bringing me Joy right now.

Joyful, too, is the thought of these two bags being enjoyed by their new owners.

I can't yet share my June ideas, but stay tuned, it's almost June! Being that it's still May, though, here's today's painting:

I'm hot and tired and had to stop working with the watercolors before I got frustrated. They'll remain unfinished for now. 

I hope you're having a Joy filled Monday, whether it's a holiday for you today or not.

When you have a lot of roses...

eventually you'll have a lot of rose petals.

I finally gave in and cut some roses. It's always hard for me, initially, to cut them. They don't last very long (especially when it's as hot as it's been). These flowers, cut on Friday, were looking wilty today, so I pulled their petals off to dry.

Perhaps I'll use them in sachets with some of my lavender. But right now, I used the nicest petals (and one I plucked from another cut rose) as models for a painting. Yesterday I thought that I should try just painting rose petals. And so today I did.

I also worked a bit more on the William Shakespeare 2000 rose painting from yesterday.

And now I'm much happier with it.

It's hard for me to believe that there are only a few more days left of the month of May and of my painting every day challenge. I've only missed two days so far. I have lots of ideas for June. And, of course, I'll keep painting.

another painting

I didn't paint yesterday because I was busy getting ready for a visitor and then I was busy spending time with my visitor. Today after she left I quickly painted a rose in a vase.

Not really a rose to be painted quickly. I don't think I could have chosen a more difficult rose to paint. It's William Shakespeare 2000. A beautiful, deep purply-red, multi-multi-multi-petaled rose with a delicious fragrance whose names conjures thoughts of Mystery Science Theater 3000 or a robot programmed with Shakespeare's complete works who goes around spouting iambic pentameter in an electronic robo-voice.

The rose could use some more refining, but that's all for today because I need to go to work. Of course, I kept thinking of other paintings I wanted to do, but not today.

Hope you're having great weekend!

taking time to celebrate Joy

I'm feeling a bit rushed today. Have a long list of things I need to do before I leave for work. Some days this really stresses me out. I hate that rushed feeling. I like to take my time with things. Especially Joyful things. But today I am determined not to let it get to me. I can savor bites of Joy and still be able to fit everything in.

First off, painting (which is really supposed to be the point of my daily blogging for this month). I started a little painting yesterday, creating a design with masking fluid.

Reminiscent of my first watercolor paintings, of sun prints and tie dying or batiks. I will have to wait a while before I can take off the masking fluid.

Next, I touched up the clay pot a bit.

I know it goes a bit against my aim of quick paintings to be finished in a day to go back to this one, but there was a bit of messiness I wanted to fix.

In a little bit I need to run to the post office. Why? Because I had an Etsy sale last night! I have two custom orders in the works right now and then out of the blue, this pendant sold.

A little pressed lily of the valley flower framed on top of a watercolor background on one side and on the other:

collaged words against a watercolor background. It was so much fun to make and I like the message. I used to celebrate every first, even silly things that most people wouldn't think twice about. Things like the first time washing my hair after getting it cut. Those tiny firsts deserve celebration, though. I don't want to be so dulled to life that I don't notice the Joys and beauty that are around me each and every day. I hope this pendant helps its new owner to remember to savor each and every bit of Joy.

I know I keep saying that flowers are bringing me Joy right now, but it is so, so true and I can't help but want to share that Joy on my blog. So here are a few views from my garden today:

Golden Celebration

A Shropshire Lad

William Morris

Eglantyne

A Shropshire Lad with Dr. Huey

It's been wonderful to be inspired to snap away. I've taken hundreds of photos in the last few days.

I have one last flower to share with you. This flower isn't growing in my garden or on my windowsill. This flower arrived in the mail yesterday.

After spending April sketching with Dana in her sketchbook course and now painting with her in May, I really wanted to have one of her paintings to hang in my home. She graciously offered to do an art trade with me and now I have her sweet flower. Just need to find the perfect place for it.