Cedar,

Just thought you should know:

I have your Birdsong Above painting in the front window~ A fledgling starling spent 20 minutes this morning trying so hard to get to those trees!  I WISH I had had my camera to video it!  The little guy  tried to fly through the glass at every angle – always aiming for your painting!  (He was doing it gently – fluttering above the ledge on the outside of the window.)  He tried from the front and the side windows!  I finally took mercy on him and took the painting out of the window until he flew away. ~ you bird tease you !

Things are blooming!

Including my young Cleveland Pear tree, “Cleveland.” I planted this baby tree only a couple years ago and it has grown so tall!

My vegetable plot has been weeded, turned, composted, and mulched, with fresh straw put down for the pathways. I built two small teepees, one for sugar snap peas to climb and the other for pole beans. In the center of the plot you can see a few strawberry plants–I’ve thinned those a lot. I’ve also planted potatoes but they’re still underground.

New oregano and rosemary plants.

Baby sugar snap peas!

I’m also going to plant garlic, some kind of melon, borage, and sunflowers. I’m waiting for farmers’ market season to get starts for my tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, basil, peppers, and marigolds. I love this time of year!

I’m almost done with that 30″x30″ sunflower I started last week, and I’m also in the beginning stages of a new Cosmic Dance painting that I’m still kind of working out in my head and have high hopes for, so I hope to have some finished paintings to share by next week.

In other news, I’ve decided that I don’t want to use my son’s real name online, but I’ve been unsure of how to refer to him.  I’ve decided that his Internet nickname hereafter shall be Blazington.  Blazington can now stand on his own for about 15 seconds!  He has yet to actually take his first step, but he is very, very close.

Also, I just made and froze a huge batch of pesto with basil from my garden!  My garden this year despite shocking neglect on my part has also produced an abundance of delicata squashes, and they are absolutely delicious!  This is one squash plant that grew as a volunteer out of my compost, and it’s currently about 20 feet across and so far has given us 7 ripe squashes, and there are at least 10 more baby ones waiting to ripen!

One of them is an older one re-worked, and 5 are brand new!

All are 20″ x 20″, Oil on Canvas.  Here they are so you can see each one in detail:

Lotus V

Lotus XIII

Lotus XIV

Lotus XV

Lotus XVI

Lotus XVII

I’ve tried to make these paintings very consistent stylistically, so that any of them can be displayed with any others.  You can mix and match them, hang them individually, in rows, columns or grids.

My favorite way to display them is in a row of 3.

They will look best as part of a decor that includes warm earthy tones like greens, golds, or reds.

These paintings are modern and elegant, decorative but also symbolic.

More paintings in this series are in the works and will hopefully be released over the next few weeks.  I have plans to do more on square canvases, and one or 2 new triptychs are likely as well.

Yesterday I harvested garlic from my garden, which I planted last fall.  It was very easy to grow!  I got 14 new bulbs from the one I planted.

I also have lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries (still!), and a few peppers.

Delicious!

Flowers cut from my garden:

Heading to Artscape in a little while–plan to see CAKE perform live this evening.

I did a lot of quick thumbnail sketches for my next Lotus paintings, just to work out the basics of composition.  I may not use all of them, and I may do a lot more.  For now I’ve started working on the ones I feel are strongest.

I have the plans for my next 5 paintings sketched in pencil onto canvases, and have started painting them!

I’m working on a drop cloth on the floor today, so I can spread several paintings out around me and work on them all at once.  I’m listening to music and am in my “painting zone.”

I was just thinking how much I genuinely love painting the Lotus series–I’ve heard that artwork created in a spirit of love and joy will be infused with that energy, and make other people love it.  Like I’m somehow filling the actual canvas and paint with a living energy that makes people feel good when they’re around it–a kind of artistic chi.  I don’t know if this is true, and it doesn’t make much sense from a logical/physical standpoint.  But it’s a nice thought, and people do seem to always love the finished Lotus paintings.

It also makes me think about the idea that whatever you put out into the world will come back to you in other forms.  I know this is true in social situations–in general, if I’m kind to people they reciprocate.  The same is true if I am nasty or spiteful.  This is why I make an effort to be as positive as I can in as many ways as I can–a challenge to be sure, but worth it.

Making art and sending it out into the world is like sending out a gift of beauty and happiness.  Does that result in beauty and happiness coming back to me in the form of gifts from others?  I think it does.  (At the very least, musing about such things while painting makes the work enjoyable for me and keeps me excited about doing it.)

I went out into my garden yesterday and came back with these treasures!  Baby lettuce, basil, purple & green string beans, sugary snow peas, and even a couple of red grape tomatoes!  The abundance of fresh produce in the summer makes it one of my favorite times of year.

Lots of things are blooming!

The bees are going crazy for the borage flowers.

And, as usual I’ve planted my vegetable garden in amongst the decorative plants, so everything is starting to take on a slightly jungle-like quality, everything growing there on purpose, but still a little bit chaotic.  Hey, that’s how I like it. 

My setup is not fancy, but it works.

I’m using Winsor & Newton Artisan water-miscible oils.  I love them.

Here’s a quick sneak peek at my work in progress–one of my “Looking Up” tree paintings.  The bare bones of the design has been laid out and I’m starting to work some color in.  I’m taking a very loose approach to this painting–now that I’ve got a rudimentary plan, I’m going to just follow it where it takes me.

It’s a good painting to work on out in the yard, surrounded by living green things and the contrast of sun and shade.

My sweet canine companions are keeping me company.

(Not too much longer now till Blake gets to take off the lampshade!  He is happy and doing well.)

Lots of things are popping up in the garden.

My strawberries have bloomed.

Happy May!

The pathways are covered in straw, which will help keep weeds from growing and is lovely and soft to walk on.  The garden beds are a combination of rich soil from previous years, manure & compost.  I love the contrast of the rich dark soil next to the golden pathways.

There’s not much to see yet in my bean-shaped plot, in the way of plants.  On the left is a cluster of borage that decided to come back from last year.  In the middle row you can see my little green rose bush and beyond that a few kale starts.

The rest of it has been planted with seeds, although you can’t tell yet.  Eventually there will be sunflowers, spinach, and a few other things.

My little square plot is just as pretty, and actually has quite a few plants already up.  The wide row in the foreground holds a variety of lettuce seeds–we’ll see which ones grow.

A new raspberry bush, which may or may not give fruit this year, but will be a permanent fixture in the corner.  In the foreground, baby broccoli.

Various peppers and baby onions.  The rabbit-wire fence to the right is for snow peas and pole beans to climb.  Peas & beans have been planted in a little row all along that edge and are just starting to sprout.

Garlic that I planted in the fall is now more than a foot tall.  Strawberry plants from last year are back in numbers and trying to take over everything.

Below, the left row has 5 tomato starts, all set up in their little cages, and a few basil plants.  The bushy green madness all along the right side of that row is mostly mint from last year, which seems determined to take over my whole yard.

It’s annoying because I keep having to pull up mint so I can plant other things, but I kind of like it because when I’m working in the garden, the mint leaves are crushed under my feet and it smells nice.

My cherry tree is in full bloom and is starting to drop tiny pink petals on everything.

I’m going to put as much time into the garden as I can this summer–It’s always so much fun when it starts producing prolific amounts of delicious organic food.

I’ve got to finish those paintings I’ve been working on, hopefully this week.  I’m already thinking of what I’m going to paint next.

I think these are going to be the best sunflowers so far in my series–I love how they are turning out!  This time I am purposely making the background colors similar in all the paintings so that they will display very nicely together.

Some are all done except for small finishing touches.

This one is a work in progress–only the background has been painted so far.

The cherry tree in our back yard is blooming! I love watching it every spring.

When all the flowers are fully bloomed, like big puffy pom-poms, the petals will start snowing down on the ground and make a thick pink carpet all over the yard.

For those of you who are interested, I’ve finally finished sorting through our photos from our recent vacation.   Click here to see them.  (Warning: lots of scrolling!)

What an honor!  I have been selected by a fellow artist, Dean H., for this award!  This is very much like Tag. It helps us to become familiar with previously undiscovered blogs.

The rules are that if the person receiving the award decides to participate, he or she must:
1 – Put the logo on their blog
2 – Add a link to the person who gave them the award
3 – Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4 – Add links to those blogs on yours
5 – Leave a message on each of the blogs nominated.

My nominees are:

1. Morgan aka The Paint Eater

2. Karen Yee

3. Heather Brown Truman of Bad! Kitty Art Studio

4. Corrine aka Jafabrit

5. Melissa Fallon

6. Varvara Harmon

7. Lauren Mitchell (a food blog, not an art blog, but I had to include this one!)

Thank you, Deano, for the honor!  It is always so nice to connect in this way with other artists–to be recognized by others and also show my support for others.

No new work to show you just yet.  But I’m working on a painting I’m really excited about, and have lots of plans for new artwork.  My constant traveling this summer is really making a dent in my productivity.  I promise I’ll make up for it in September.

Speaking of which, I have a show coming up next month at Irvine Nature Center in Owings Mills, MD.  Details are forthcoming.

My garden, as always, continues to amaze me.

The only other big thing that’s going on with me right now is that my sweet 3-year-old black lab, Clara, is very very sick, and I’m having a hard time with it.  Click here to read more.