When I was a young child, I thought spring was smelly. Not pretty, not a hopeful sign of warmth ahead, not a welcome relief from snow. I did always love to see the bright flowers break through the soil and the chartreuse leaves pop open, but mostly I just thought it was smelly. And wet. And sticky.
Fall is still my favorite season, but I’ve come around to spring. Maybe it was a year in sun-starved England, but now the popping definitely outweighs the stink. Even the occasional whiff of a Callary pear tree cannot overpower the almost magical reappearance of color. Bulbs seem to me especially improbable–if I felt half as refreshed as a daffodil looks after a long winter sleep, I would seriously consider adopting a daily nap habit.
But I digress. This is a long way of saying that spring inspires me to paint. More specifically, my parents’ garden in spring inspires me to paint. I was recently home for a (very) long weekend and ran out of time to paint everything I wanted to. Here’s what I fit in…
First, some winter survivors: two geraniums kept alive by central heating, strung out and showing no signs of blossoms. I wish I could say I had channeled Matisse in some intelligible way for this painting, but really I think his biggest influence was as a subconscious trigger that made my brain jump directly from “geranium” to “must paint now.”
Geraniums, 24×36 inches; available for sale in Boston-area only. Click on photo for better resolution.
And second, some flowers that my mum picked. As soon as there are flowers outside, she is bringing them inside, encouraging new blossoms and brightening the house with tiny bottles of color. Primroses are one of her favorites, and they look so beautiful with the violets. I added some dying daffodils for a more interesting composition. I’m running out of canvas to paint on (and of course I always support recycling), so this went over a sketch I did years ago; I’ve included the metamorphosis here just for fun.
Daffodils and Primroses, 8×10 inches; available on Etsy. Click on photo for better resolution.
I’ve brought my oils back to our apartment now and have decided the roof-deck will be my new studio, so I’ll be producing more work soon.
