Posts tagged ‘flowers’
And just like that, it’s summer time! Summer vacation at least. For the last couple weeks my daughter has been bringing home all kinds of stuff from her year in fourth grade. One worksheet particularly caught my eye; a little poem she wrote about the weather. It’s hard to describe but it is the exact personality of my daughter. I hear her voice and see her beauty in the poem.
Sunshine
You are so bright and yellow
How do you make a rainbow?
If I were you I’d make rainbows more often.
Yesterday, the first of May, I went for a walk with the dog and was in total visual euphoria because it has finally become “peak spring” with flowers and leaves on the trees, dandelions, bright lemon-green patches in the grass, a temperature that is actually pleasant and un-sweaty. It was glorious, a literal breath of fresh air.
Today, the second of May, mother nature has shown her bi-polar side giving us gray cold winter like monotony which we have been having for the last 6 months or so. I know summer will win out and life will go on, but I can’t feeling ripped off by the lack of pretty-comfortable-pleasant-ness spring usually brings.
Maybe that’s why my last two large paintings have been giant odes to spring-like imagery. Maybe I just like flowers. I resolved to keep fresh flowers in my work table the last few weeks. It’s part of my new ambition to care for myself in radical ways that I have not afforded or believed I needed in the past.
I need flowers.
In case you are wondering. I do have some favorites. Lilac, first of all because it smells so amazing and I grew up with lilacs all around my house. Luckily, my neighbors now are kind enough to share theirs. I think roses are intensely beautiful, especially the pink ones. And recently I discovered little white chamomile flowers, like miniature daisies that wobble as I type.
I cleaned my desk last night and what did I find? An old memory card from a camera. On it was a bunch of old pictures of my dog. AND this great photo-tutorial I created a long time ago for an adult watercolor class. I was trying to teach the process of layering – which as you can tell by the 16 or so photos that you really do need a lot of layers of paint in watercolor to build up that certain richness (yet somehow maintain that light and airy feeling). Or something like that. I hope looking at the photos shows you a little bit about how the painting process works. If you have questions leave me a comment and I’ll try to come up with a coherent answer.
May Bouquet by Lauren Alexander on Etsy 8x10 print
I painted this while fooling around in the watercolor class for grown-ups that I am assisting in. It has turned out to be one of my favorite paintings. The original sold quickly – a sign that I did something right. And now the print is here for you to enjoy in all its archival reproduction 8×10 glory. Have a fantastic friday, everyone! What are your plans? Besides shopping for extremely lovely art…..
I had the lucky chance yesterday to visit one of my favorite rooms at the Nelson-Atkins Museum. Normally I get all up in the business (as close as you can get to a painting before the guard has to shoo you back) of the O’Keefe or Hopper painting in the same room but I felt sort of sucked in by the painting you see at left. These super vivid flowers against the white-out background kind of intrigued me enough to read the wall caption for more info. Read more
- Bring May Flowers; Original Watercolor by Lauren Alexander
I can’t believe it is almost May! That means it will be summer soon…I haven’t written my summer art class lesson plans yet. Argh! Doing some work with nature and a garden theme due to the Monet Waterlily exhibit. If you are in Kansas City between now and the end of summer you HAVE to go see the three waterlily paintings together for the first time in 30 years. It’s a must do. A no-brainer. Just do it. You’ll thank me later.
