When I worked for the art supply company years ago, the spring was always slow for sales. Rather than sitting inside and making art, people were outside, gardening, hiking. This time around, the same has been true for me. I've been spending a lot of time outside instead of with a pen and paint brush.
There have been a couple of small paintings I've done in the past couple of month, but along with the lure of being in the fresh air, my sense of creativity has shifted to the yard in my new home that has been quite dull and without color for many years. Slowly I am pruning, pulling and planting new life into this almost 10,000 square foot lot.
In the 6 months I have lived in my new home, there have been all sorts of animals I did not have in suburbia. I have had to come to make peace with garter snakes in my yard, for example, this spring. We also have cute little bunnies everywhere that love to eat new plants, so I will gearing my planting to accommodate them. We even had a bobcat walk behind our steel fence not too long ago, which was the talk of the neighborhood I live in. Coyotes, bald eagles, deer, and even a bear have been sighted in this eastern edge of the Portland Metro area.
This painting was one I had started as one style, but then reverted it to something more realistic. The simple rooster was a fun one to also paint in gouache. Initially it had a more wild and eclectic color palette, and I was going to incorporate sunflowers. My husband fell in love with it before I got to that point, and encouraged me to keep the background white. He loves this painting, so it now sits on our fireplace.
Now that the summer heat is setting in, I might be indoors more with that paintbrush in my hand. I am working on a new ink and watercolor piece featuring some of the forest's residents, hopefully coming soon!
