Gardens, Gardens Everywhere!

                 

Back in March, I posted an inspiration piece called “String of Spring”. It was a first attempt at painting flowers and the result was mixed.



Original
String of Spring
6x18 Water Soluble
Pencil on 140#
Cold Pressed Paper
©2011 BEDeuel



But I call it an inspiration piece because, it inspired Stephanie of Crystal Allure Jewelry to special order a “String of Spring” to use in her own home. She wanted purple coneflowers with an eggshell background. Another idea to offer as a customized, art-for-fun item!

In developing the piece for her, I did a sketch that didn’t really translate well to watercolors. I kept it on the computer and, the other day I thought to use the computer’s Paint program to “colorize” it. And, I like the effect. It’s different than my other pieces, but I think that’s what I like about it.


Computer
Colorized Sketch
©2011 BEDeuel



I’m going to use it for a note card design to raise some funds for Hearthside Cats, a local, no-kill fostering program that provides so much for the community. Let me know if it appeals or not!

Oh, yes, and here’s the final piece designed for Stephanie:


String of Spring Coneflowers
6x18 Water Soluble Pencils
on 140# Cold Pressed Paper
©2011 BEDeuel


A customized “garden” for her wall!
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Speaking of spring:

As I’ve mentioned before, it was an extremely snowy winter which became an equally extremely rainy spring. Then when June came, the sun came out and the spring season lost her shyness.

When spring burst forth, all of our efforts were turned toward tending the lawn and gardens. And it started to look so beautiful. These pictures show how much so.
Then July came, all too quickly, and sucked every bit of beauty out of the glorious gardens. We watered as much as possible, but most of the annuals died and a lot of the perennials went brown and curly. It started to rain a little bit this last week or so, but the goal at this point is to salvage as much of the perennial gardens as we can so that they can regroup for next year.

And they will. They’ll rebound and bring all their loveliness along for the show. There will be two more seasons, each with their own offerings and pleasures, and, when spring is ready to re-emerge, we’ll be ready to welcome her again.