Skip to main content

Harmonious (herbal)Blends



      As you probably have gathered, I am a lover of all things garden. Not only do I love to plant living things in the soil and watch them grow, but I love to then photograph, paint, draw and otherwise make art from my garden. My series “Of the Woods” is all about the exuberant plant life in which I am surrounded. It’s actually not only exuberant in the woods, but in the pastures, the yard, and the gardens.  So this life is literally overflowing on my canvases. 

     This week I planted an herb garden in what was formerly an overgrown and neglected planter that came with the place. I made these sweet little wooden markers with a Sharpie and some cast-offs from the wood pile, so as not to forget what’s what. I accidentally made an extra one for thyme, so for a minute  had extra thyme on my hands!

                      
           


What good is an herb garden, you ask? 
Let me put it this way: Already I don’t know what I did without it. An herb garden is beautiful as well as practical. Some of its myriad uses are: 
Spearmint tea
mojitos Totally worth it for this alone!
herbal flea and tick spray for cats
seasonings for spaghetti sauce


    Just think. When God put Adam and Eve on earth, He put them in a garden. Theirs was not a fast paced, “I want it and I want it now" culture like we have nowadays. Or what has been referred to as the Fast Food culture. Life in the garden takes time, and it takes work to get the fruit. That’s the godly design of life. Time and work.
      I planted radishes and cilantro in early April, from seed. I left the seed bag at the end of the row of cilantro as a marker, and eventually, after sufficient rain and sunshine and time, there was this explosion of cilantro in the bag:

     Life is designed to be exuberant and abundant, even for the forgotten little seeds that were left in the bag! By now, the cilantro I actually planted is enough to make salsa, which is very exciting around our house. 

Know what else is exciting around here? The upcoming Garden Art Workshop!

Here’s a few pages from last year’s Garden Journal:








Want to be a part of it? Register here:
Garden Art Journal workshop
Come on over on Saturday, June 15th, from 2-4!

By then I should have fresh salsa, cool mojitos, and plenty of garden life for us to paint and draw!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Where it All Started

    I have always believed that people love to see behind the scenes in the artist studio. It’s like looking behind the curtain and seeing what goes on backstage, to see how the art is crafted, what tools and materials are used, and how the artist thinks.        To this end, I am thrilled to unveil a new video that tells my story of the origins of Parts of Art.  A big shout out to the producer and videographer   @Moguefilms .                                           Here are some of the pieces seen on the video.                                              Want to see more?                                           visit my shop here    
Post a Comment
Read more

Just add paint!

      It’s just that simple when painting with watercolor.  This is how I start my day in the studio. Open to a new page, fill a brush with sparkling clean water, and fill the page or pages. Then, add watercolor paint and let it do its thing.              The daily studio routine is this:  clock in at 9 and paint that page in my journal.       I realize that the painting on this page could become a beautiful fabric design, a batiked collage, or an amazing painted wall hanging. But my POINT is that I start my studio day with water on a page and go from there.           As far as the illustrated journal, yes it’s true. Any thing done on these hallowed pages could become some great masterpiece someday. But that’s clearly not the intent. The journal is the place to play, to experiment, to express,  to answer the question “what if ?” It’s about the inspiring and refreshing place my mind enters once that water on the page turns to color. It’s where it starts.  Does it matter
Post a Comment
Read more

The Making of a Show piece

     Earlier this month I made the decision to compete. The competition is for a monetary prize that will be awarded in an upcoming show. This is an art show in which I have participated for the last three years, and, for me, the awards are fairly substantial. I am not usually one to go after awards, but I figure I’m going there anyway, so I might as well compete.      The other motivator for me is that I need a new jury image or two. Somewhere along the line I learned that jury images need to show a constistency; the pieces need to look like they are all from the same DNA, so to speak. I have had a concern that my jury images are too dissimilar, and someday I need to make them more cohesive.         So someday arrived this week. I had three days off work, so I scheduled studio time to design and build a show piece that 1) could possibly win a prize, and 2) be photographed for a jury image for next year’s shows.         I thought I would show you some photos of the w
2 comments
Read more