Where Am I?

Wow, has it really been almost 9 months since I lasted posted anything here?  Shame on me!  Part of my "absence" has been pure laziness. Yes, I admit it, there would be times when I'd sit down and think, "I should really update this blog." and then the lazy me would say, "Ugh... I don't feel like it..." Like I said, shame on me.  Facebook has replaced a lot of blog updating, I think.  It's so much easier to jump on FB and jot down some quick post and then move on.  No muss, no fuss.  Then, of course, the fact that I started working full-time, at English Gardens, put another damper on my blogging because my work there really doesn't pertain to painting per se.  I kind of view it as "painting with flowers" as opposed to, say, painting flowers. 

Customer's containers

A good portion of my work there, this past year, had been doing the displays of flowers in what is referred to as The Shadehouse, where the annuals are housed for sale and then after the flower seasons are over and EG transforms into a Christmas/Holiday center.  I work on custom porch pots.  Again, I'm using design principles and color in my creations.  These were a couple I did for a customer who had inherited these planters.  She wanted everything to be natural - no "glittery" anything and she wanted birds that would be native to Michigan winters. These containers were probably around 3' and 4' tall.  I could have sold these containers many times over!  I disappointed a number of other customers when I had to tell them they belonged to someone else and that we didn't carry these wooden planters.  The customer was quite pleased when she came to pick them up.

Now, I'm back in the studio, full-time for a while -seasonal layoff.  I love it!  It'll give me time to reconnect as a fine artist before the spring comes and my hands want to get "dirty" in the garden, again.  Hopefully, this year I'll do a better job of juggling both of my loves - painting and gardening.  Don't bother suggesting that I paint my gardens, I tried that.  What happens is I start out all ready to do some plein air painting and the next thing I know, I'm on my knees, pulling weeds or moving plants around!  I can't help it.  I confess - I'm a plant junkie.

So, for the next couple of months, I'm here. Back in Wonderland, my studio.  Let's see what I find down in the rabbit hole this winter ;)