River Garden Studio

give me warmth

 

I've been searching the house for colors that make me feel warm.  Here is what i have found...

a fragment of a collage,

 

a photograph of my mother and I.  I think I was in my mid-twenties,

 

the flowers from outside my favorite Mexican food restuarant last summer,

a little glass box with a violet resting inside,

nesting measuring cups, a gift from my daughter,

 

fabrics from the studio of Cathy Dorris.

 

pieces that I want to put into jewelry, one day...

more golds and reds,

some draping fabric,

old spools of colored thread that fell out of their box,

dancing light everywhere!  

I want to wish you all warmth as January comes to it's end. 

Especially to those to the north and east.

 

the pond lies still

 

The snow and ice melts, making a perfect backdrop for art.

 

Puddles hold secrets of last autumn.

I worked on a new painting this weekend, and found myself thinking and writing about a pond in the winter.

 

 

 

But instead of the words being on the pages of an art journal, I wrote them right on the painting's surface, and then a design started to form and stitches and shapes began to emerge.

 

 

Outside has been so still and quiet. Mist and rain chill the air. Inch by inch, moment by moment the snow melts, and the river I watch unfreezes.

 

On these days I feel like that pond.  My heart lies still.  Warm at it's core.  Full and quiet.  Waiting for life to burst forth.  

 

Deep in the ponds water there IS life, next years dragonflies and water lilies.  Tiny eggs waiting to hatch out lizzards and frogs and insects.

 

 

Deep in my heart I reflect.  

There is a quiet wonder about these days of January. 

 

 

especially in the winter

Especially in the winter, it so important to notice the details.  

When life is crazy, (and it is being a second grade teacher!), I need to  re-connect with myself when I wake up on Saturday morning each week.

So, I look at the world I love and try to see it through the eyes of an artist.

 

I love to "play" with my camera, this is a close-up of the flowers on a french vase.

 

and a frothy plant on a freshly cleaned kitchen window sill.

 

This piece is called "nesting," which is what I'm still doing on my days off.

 

I see this farm house on the way home every day, (I did enhance this photograph a bit!)

And here are some new pages I am working on for my "winds of change" book that I will mail to Seth to add his amazing touch to... This go around we are both collaborating on each page...

 

 

 And here is one of the pages for his book, which I started and he finished.  Can you tell who did what?

 

And this is a part of a mixed-media painting I finished last week called "calling to me."

You can see the whole canvas here on my tumblr blog: a river's garden studio. Tumblr blogs each have these amazing archives of photographs and quotes, you can see mine here.  Just click on the title to see recent spotlighted work, or click on a photo to see it up close. Some art work featured is mine, and some photographs are by other artists, my tumblr. blog is like my online scrapbook of inspiration.

And make sure you visit  The Collectors Edition, Chapter 2 to see some wonderful collections!