Daisies and Poppies

 

I'm planting and painting the newest seeds added to my garden, Shasta Daisies and Red Corn Poppies!  With two trips to the garden center this week, more additions are coming!!  I don't think I've ever been so garden crazy in JANUARY, but the balmy weather has me catching up on fall tasks and getting ahead on spring ones!  What fun it is to plan out the blooms to come!  When Tiffany first started kindergarten, I had a large bunch of Shasta Daisies in my front garden. One particularly cold winter did them in and I can't wait for these seeds to flourish!  I love poppies, too, but have only had them briefly thrive. I'm hoping the new spot I chose for them will be their forever home by the cellar! Painting number 4757 in 4757 days. 

Through the Poppies

Through the Poppies
Oil on canvas panel, 5x7
purchase here

Today finds me dreaming of garden landscapes and peaceful walks through the blooms.  We moved our fourth child to college today, and it is bittersweet. She is such a bright and shiny star - her whole future spreading out before her feet.  We miss her already, and her puppy wanders from room to room, anxiously waiting.  So, looking for some art therapy today - I return to my paints.  Choosing to work small, I am not painting from any reference (as I usually do).  I am not concerned with colors or values, the process of expressing is my solace. Strokes made with brush and palette knife, this painting is my 957th in 957 days.

Path in Poppy Fields

Path in Poppy Fields
Oil on canvas, 6x9
purchase here

Some days, I actually have paintings playing out in my mind while I go about my daily duties.  Driving to the gym, license bureau, to weights and robotics, with scenes unfolding before my eyes.  It is SO hard to keep my mind on my tasks!  It is as if I have been on "auto pilot", and keep coming back to reality with a snap!  I could hardly decide where to begin once I did get to my easel - there are three landscapes uppermost in my mind this day!  Deciding on this one first, I sure hope I can get to at least one more later.  I am working up a small piece with plans to enlarge to 24x36.  I would have just painted large to begin with, but I don't yet have the wood cut....and time is limited today.  I brushed in the whole underpainting, and have added the thick, juicy paint with a couple of palette knives.  I may need to pull a few more cool tones down into the poppy fields, but for now I am letting it rest.  This painting makes 926 in 926 days.

Old Fashioned Poppies

Old Fashioned Poppies
Oil on canvas on panel, 8x10

I truly despise cold weather.  In fact, I simply could not live north of Missouri!  I don't know how my "mountain" friends do it.  I grow weary of the dark and dismal snow cover, so today - I choose something from my summer garden!  Poppies are one kind of flower that my grandmother did not have.  I had tried many times to get a start that would survive the harsh winter, to no avail.  One year, I noticed the wonderful bed of poppies in a friend's yard just down the road, and she offered me a start.  her grandmother had planted them on the spot perhaps 40 years earlier.  My grandmother very likely admired them from the road as she drove by.  Once planted, that variety has thrived in my front bed, and I've even moved some out along the fence.  For ten years now - their vibrant colors absolutely sing from the garden each May!  I'm so glad I finally found the perfect poppy for my garden.  I have squeezed this painting in between an amazing basketball game with Michael the scoring king, and a robotics tournament for Michaela, which Michael is helping with.  Almost time to pick them up - I am no longer snowed in!  Painting number 404 in as many days.