Winter Visitors in the Garden

One forgotten Broccoli Plant was left out in the garden. Wasted because the frost made it limp and hardly worth eating.

We really enjoy watching the birds at the feeders and I'm hoping to be inspired to draw or paint them at some point soon.

This squirrel makes it hard to keep the bird feeders full. He seems to have endless tricks to get into or onto them and eat his fill. he's got lots of company as we have both gray and white squirrels here.

We have a lot of chickadees most of the year around. They are very fond of the old birch tree in the front yard.

I haven't been outdoors with my wheelchair since the snow but will send someone out to get a few winter shots of the ward and the garden to wrap the year up with.

Between Projects

After I'd finished working on that new Lily painting I went back to arranging finished paintings on the wall and hoping for some sales.

As I was doing that it occurred to me that part of the trouble that I have in making a sale has to do with finding frames clients like or setting prices on vintage frames that I have.

This time around I decided to simplify things and take advantage of the fact that most canvases these day wrap around the fronts. I simply painted the sides to match the fronts and wrapping the image all the way around. that way I only have to sell the painting itself. The customer saves money here and can choose any frame they desire and can afford.

I am selling the small canvas panels at set prices by size and leaving them unframed as well so they can stack or go in small bins to sell. 

I was still quite excited about those pink lilies when I finished the painting and wrote a lot about it  along with photos of all the pink lilies I'd grown in my garden over the years or had received as gifts which led to pages and pages of all of the lily paintings and drawings that I've done. I just couldn't decide ho w much of it I should carry over into the blog here.

New Lily Painting

New Lily painting from flowers sent by my brother when I got out of the hospital.

This started as an abstract quite a while ago and I added one lily over the summer.  It was nice to be back to work on it.

As you can see I'm taking a looser approach to it this time around.

All I have available for paints this time are a few tubes of acrylic paint-Mostly Liquitex heavy body and Jo Sonya and a few bottles of craft type acrylics in various brands and thicknesses.

You would think that would present a problem but it hasn't so far.

I'm really enjoying painting for the first time in ages.
Part of it is the new studio and having both the time and the space to really relax and feel it all wash through me. 

As I continued to paint those lilies I was feeling better and freer than I have ever felt before. Feeling light, like I could float away in the happiness of it all.

A place of my own at last, doing what I've always wanted to do.

My physical limits don't really matter-I don't suppose they ever did.  Maybe that's what makes the experience so intense.

So much to consider as I reach yet again for my paints.

This painting continues to surprise and delight each time I go back to work on it,

Today the most change was in the flowers.

Here's a close up view to give you a better look at what I meant by that.

After studying my garden photos of lilies I began making changes to bring the leaves and flowers into a bit more realistic arrangements.

That kind of took the fun out of it for a while.

I'm walking away from it at this point until inspiration strikes again.

t the _ _ _ _ hit the fan , I hit the wall but at least no one hit anyone else

oddly, I was so upset that Ihad  to take a nitro and go to bed.

2018 Winter Studio

  

As the season begins I am look at my fifth winter trap in the house. 

For those of you that didn't know I live in a power wheelchair and don't have a van yet.  The only transit van that can handle my specialty chair is private pay and much too expensive to use for anything but doctors visits.

For someone in my situation this looked hopeless. My spouse and I argue, debate or discuss this mess all of the time. He likes it this way but I was drowning and there was so much crap on the floor that I couldn't even drive  my wheelchair across the room. As we approached our 50th wedding anniversary, I decided that I'd given him nearly half a century to do things his way and now it was time to give my ideas a try. 20 days of nearly constant debate over the project ensued but I am closer than ever to achieving a victory here.

    My "Bedroom"

   

  Gift shop next to desk 36"W x 48"T

My favorite area:

15"W X 72"L worktable/desk space by the front window for a garden view and natural light.

    Shown here with a recently finished painting 

      Still a lot of things to move around     

Julia at "work", play and life 

My favorite place-I hope to put in better windows soon. 

   Doug and I built the lower bookcase/shelving unit a couple of years ago

   The view from my sleep chair

 There is still a lot more to do but I am   

encouraged by the results so far.

I've already started a few projects

 in here, even though the space is 

far from finished. The first of them

 was to cover the out sides of the 

bottles with adhesive papers like scrap 

book or wrapping papers applied to 

the sanded outside surface with mod 

podge or a similar water based sealer, 

glue and sealer.

Garden Clutter Buster

During the summer i had cut a lot of long twist ties and wrapped them on the handle of my garden tote so they were ready to use but I didn't want to put it away for the winter like that.

There was a tangle of wire left that needed to be dealt with too.

My solution was to roll the short ones and store them in a mason jar.

Next I cut the longer tangle into small pieces so they could be wound up to.

All of that mess fit into just 2, 8 0unce Jelly Jars.

Adding Color When the Flowers Fade

 Cool weather comes early in Minnesota. Most of my garden is gone already. the only things that remain in bloom are the marigolds and the seedum.

It won't be long before the only color here will be the painted spindles on my wheelchair ramp.

The last time I painted this the birds were bluebirds and the flowers were daisies.

This time my goal was to make it as brightly colored as possible so I'll have a nicer view out the window when the snow flies.

Birds, close up

There is a small camera built into a small bird feeder in our front yard. When the squirrel doesn't mess with it we do get some pretty interesting close up photos of the birds who visit us here.

They sure speak up when the feeder needs filling.

They are beginning to look like they've got some personality too.

We haven't seen any goldfinches, wrens or black capped chickadees lately, they may have moved on for the season but we sure enjoyed them while they were here. (especially the two batches of wren babies on the arbor and wheelchair ramp).

The Front Flower Bed

It doesn't look like much now because all that's blooming is a lone purple coneflower and some seedum.

Just now I'm doing some weeding and preparing to add some Iris and daffodil bulbs for next years garden.

Things should look great when the pink roses and yellow pointella bushes.

The best part is that I'm using strawberries as ground cover. They're useful as well as ornamental{both the leaves and the flowers are pretty) and you can eat the fruit if the animals don't beat you to them.

It's very much a work in progress but has endless posibilites.

Watercolor Roses

There isn't a lot to say about them except that they were pleasant to work on and the people that got these note cards really enjoyed getting them. For me, that's the most important thing about it.

Garden Photos

My Front Yard View from the living room window.

Flower bed in progress next to the street.