Everyone seems to just love cardinals!
There are many other creatures in my neighbourhood; that will be something to write about anothertime!
Ellen Downe -Reflections From The Artist's Garden |
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Did you ever think, how different our response is to the various creatures that inhabit our world? Everyone seems to just love cardinals! But, although these guys have the cute factor well in hand; they are not universally liked. For some reason, we don't like them sharing our homes...in the attic... and eating our food...from the garbage cans. They are one species all too successful at living alongside humans! Not a great shot, but I was enjoying the gymnastics of this little chick-a-dee! The heron is a large and majestic bird, beloved by all who don't have fish ponds! My neighbour keeps them out of his pond with a plastic heron, that he moves around periodically. He also has help from several yappy little dogs! Waterfowl... I love the mallards! This is a painting I did of a little family, floating peacefully in the sunlit water. Bunny is pretty cute too, but next year I'm putting a fence around the beans! The majestic Canada Geese are not universally loved; there are just too many of them! The park is slippery with goose poop. Maybe the authorities need to rethink some wildlife policies! But, they are very beautiful birds. There are many other creatures in my neighbourhood; that will be something to write about anothertime!
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What I love best about summer...other than being on holidays....is my garden. I don't just grow random plants, although it may look pretty random! I believe that it's crucial to provide habitat for some of the fauna that frequent my garden, because, they are losing habitat elsewhere. So,if my garden looks a little wild; it was planned that way! I grow coneflowers for the butterflies, and because they are drought -resistant in our hot, dry weather. They are also one of the easiest flowers to grow; just give them a place in the sun! Asclepias tuberosa, also called Butterfly weed, is a type of milkweed, and I grow it in hopes that a Monarch butterfly will use it as a host plant for her eggs. Buddelia, or Butterfly Bush, is a non-natve species that butterflies love. Mine didn't make it through the winter. At first I wasn't going to replace it, but then , I was thinking; most of my best butterfly pictures were taken on the buddelia. So, this is a replacement. The first butterfly I've seen this year! A yellow swallowtail. I didn't get a picture, but here's a photo from last year! Filipendula rubra; Queen of the Prairie! One of my favourites! I never see it without some bumblebees zooming around. Butterflies seem to like it too. Monarda... bee balm...bergamont...whatever you want to call it! Love this easy to grow flower! Humming birds love them too! I just have to get around to thinning them out; they reseed all too well. My little bit of paradise! Sometimes my garden shows up in my paintings too... but that's a story for another day..... Orillia is a great place to visit. Hometown of Gordon Lightfoot, which is very cool, but more importantly to me, my Mom lives here! We sometimes go to the Orillia Museum of Art & History to look at the art. It's a really old building that has just recently been revamped. I was attempting to get a view of the bell tower. The current show is the annual Women's Day Art Show. The theme this year is Reflections. Some of the lovely artwork. With the renovations, there is more room to display art. I like how the art is grouped by theme and colour. Mine is the one on the lower right! It's always exciting to see my work in a show! And, my Mom's quilted piece is right beside it! Looks great, doesn't it? We all interpret the theme in a different way. One of the things I like about this show is that it is not juried. The other thing I like is that they include sculpture, and fibre arts. This door is part of the building. It's really beautiful! The light fixture is gorgeous! These magnificent stairs lead up to another Art Exhibit! But that's enough for now! As you might have already noticed, I like flowers! They are a continual source of inspiration for my art. I really like the shapes of these clematis petals, and the way the light hits the green leaves. Here is a closeup of one of the blooms, after a rainfall. Isn't the colour lovely? Rosa Mundi is one of the loveliest roses ever! I love old roses anyway, because they all have a story, but this is a favourite, because of the spectacular variegated colours. Rosa Mundi has two stories. One is that it was named after Rosamond Clifford, a mistress of Henry II of England. She was poisoned by Henry's jealous queen. The other story is that this rose was used as a symbol of the joining of the houses of York and Lancaster, after the War of the Roses ended. Morden Sunrise is a modern rose; introduced in1999. It is one of the Parkland series, bred for Canadian weather. Hardy, and a repeat bloomer, what's not to like? Another picture of Morden Sunrise. Rosebuds were something I leaned to paint when I was doing folk art. My painting style has changed a lot since those days. I'd like to paint this one. When I first started growing roses, I didn't have much luck. My property has a lot of shade, and if something was lucky enough to bloom, it was soon eaten by aphids, or little green worms. This miniature rose is pretty hardy, though, and has survived in spite of neglect, Canadian winters, and little green worms! |
Author I have always been an artist. I studied art at Georgian College in Barrie. I majored in Textile Design, which I chose because it gave me a lot of flexibility in media. Currently, I am painting in acrylic ,and in oil, on canvas. My other passion is gardening, and flowers often show up in my work! Archives
January 2020
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