Vivid Beauty

I love the iris flower and we have a wide variety planted throughout the garden. This one with its rich violet hue just makes me want to grab my paints immediately and immerse myself within its deepest shadows. The intensity and color range of this one iris would keep me painting for many days if not years trying to capture all of its deep intense glory. The final touch for me is that beautiful tiny fleck of golden brown of the bee body. I love that it let me capture it in such a great position of importance. With the wonderful yet subtle green in the background, it really pushes the beauty of the iris to the forefront helping you see all its gorgeous values up front and personal. Can't you just feel its silky texture and satin petals? I love when a photograph just makes you want to reach out and touch. That is the wonderful thing of being a creative artist, helping you see the array of everyday elegance just waiting to be discovered.

Wednesday Wisdom:What Matters to You

What matters most to you?

Word - Green

The word of the week is green.

Its noun meaning - a color between blue and yellow in the spectrum; the color of growing fresh grass or of the emerald; something of a green color; green vegetation; a grassy plot.

Some Thesaurus words are - apple, aquamarine, beryl, chartreuse, fir, forest, grass, jade, kelly, lime, malachite, moss, olive, pea, peacock, pine, sage, sap, sea, spinach, verdigris, vert, veridian, willow.

These are chinese lanterns that will eventually turn a beautiful autumn orange. In the spring when they are just appearing they immerse themselves upon our garden with this luscious hue of illuminated green. I just couldn't describe it in any other fashion, they are just brilliant in coloration. Which shade would you give it? Me, I'm not really sure because I can find all the wonderful ranges of the palette in this photo. It does give you something to ponder though, doesn't it? Mother Nature at her finest, what an artist!

Creamy Light

Our fruit trees bloom all in white and when the sun is straight above them, I like to take their photograph. Do you see all the deliciously buttered yellow? How about the deep greyed avocado green shadows? All of this is highlighted by the bright milky white so transparent you can't stand the sheer beauty of it. I take photos every single year and with each shutter snap I am amazed at the generosity of Mother Natures' gifts. The joy and magical quality of the dappled sunlight just makes me dizzy with artful inspiration. What brings magic to your life?

Wednesday Wisdom: Be the Change

Vintage Illustrations

I adore botanical prints and was fortunate enough to stumble across a booth that shared my love interest at the Junk Bonanza. I scored so many pages that included the subjects of birds, flowers, eggs, butterflies, bulbs and aquatic life that I don't know where to start. I want to use them in my mixed media pieces but for safe measure I will also be scanning them to reuse over and over. I like to use originals in my art whenever possible because I think it adds an authenticity to my artwork. As for what I will be making, I'm not really sure. I just know by starting with such inspiration, how can I go wrong, right? I will keep you posted on the creative journey and when I get a piece or two finished I will be sure to share the journey with you. So, my question for you, what gets you really excited?

Love Bug?

Bee Mine, Valentine?

I used to love handing out and especially receiving valentine's in school. Those handwritten notes scribbled by children pledging their love, admiration and happiness just for knowing you. How I wish I would have saved them. Can you imagine a box of these little treasures to leaf through when you needed it? 

A couple years ago I bought a box of those childhood valentines and sent them to family and friends just to have a little fun. The joy it brought me with all their calls was just precious and so unexpected. So, this year when they are marked clearance, buy a bunch to send out whenever the mood strikes. Not everyone is in a relationship but we all like being told how special we are and that we were thought of today. Imagine your surprise if you received one! The little joys of everyday are what makes life special, don't you think? I sure hope so!

Wednesday Wisdom-Looking for Beauty

 Have you found Beauty in an Unexpected place? Where was it?

Radiance

Some Thesaurus words for bright: ablaze, aglow, alight, auroral, beaming, blazing, brilliant, dazzling, effulgent, flashing, glaring, gleaming, glistening, glittering, illuminated, incandescent, lighted, luminous, moonlit, phosphorescent, radiant, shimmering, shiny, sparkling, sunny, twinkling, vivid.

Could there be any better words for describing this amazing daffodil. I loved the way the light shines through at the edges. The intense yellows weeps onto the creamy white petals in a great reflection of color. Then there is the wondrous coral color of the daffodil cup. It is truly a remarkable specimen and I have the pleasure of watching them come up every Spring and spreading their brilliant palette throughout the gardens. Oh yeah, it is a luminous day when these beauties begin to open!



Word - Bright

It has been a while, a long while really since I have blogged and to tell you the truth, I have missed it tremendously. I just wasn't allowing myself the time to sit, look through my photos, choose one and let me get inspired by what I saw. Sad, really, that everything else came before me and what I wanted to do. So, that changes today. I will be posting regularly and if you haven't noticed, I have added a "follow by email" button so you will get an automatic update when I post. Do sign up, I love the little alerts that come for me letting me know my favorite blogs are ready to come and view! Are you ready, here we go...

The word for this week is bright.

Its adjective meaning - shining, radiant; illustrious, glorious; intelligent, clever, lively, cheerful.

This page was done in my art journal. It is a reflection of wanting something bright, cheerful and sunny to compensate for the dreary, greyed down layers of the wintery season here in the Midwest. So I gathered my favorite things - a card from a friend with a fantastic botanical image and of course the insects I so adore along with some odd pieces of ephemera. I worked in one color on the background creating interest and patterns to give your eye something wonderful to rest one. What you can't see is the wonderful dark pea soup color of the ribbon tying in all the lovely greens spattered throughout the page.

Thank you for checking in and I do hope you will become a "follower" so we can once again journey into the undiscovered world we live in together! Have a very warm and sunny day!

Wednesday Wisdom-Lucky to be DIFFERENT

 Are you LUCKY enough to have that "something different" that sets you apart from the crowd?