Spring to Summer, celebrating May Day

I will be away visiting Virginia over the next several days. When I return, I have some Very VERY EXCITING NEWS to share with you!!!

In the meantime, I will leave you with my May Day journal page.
Tradition says that May Day marks the end of the harsh winter months and welcomes the beginning of Summer. Indeed, it would not be a proper celebration of this glorious new month, and a soon forthcoming Summer Season without a cup of tea and a very fine visitor.

"Advancing Spring profusely spreads abroad
Flowers of all hues, with sweetest fragrance stored;
Where'er she treads Love gladdens over plain,
Delight on tiptoe bears her lucid train;
Sweet Hope with conscious brow before her flies,
Anticipating wealth from Summer skies;"

- author unknown

Spring to Summer, an ode

This page is an ode to the trees in my yard that have graced my life with their late blooms. The beautiful flowers have now begun to turn toward a caving in and the on rushing of summer.

It is quite warm here today. This is one of only two days so far where the temperatures have reached into the 80's. The winds are strong, which is typical for Kansas, and I am headed out to the garden to visit the world.

"While whispers ran among the boughs
Of promises and praise;
And playful, loving messages
Sped through the leaf-lit ways."

Spring to Summer, in the midst

I have a couple of new journal pages to share with you this week. This first one is reminiscent of a visit with a lovely Oriole.

We were both enjoying the sweetly aromatic scents of blooming trees wafting upon the breeze. "The air is in the midst, I think,
And scare knows which to be -
Whether all fragrance, clinging close,
Or bird-song, wild and free."

Spring to Summer, shower of blossoms

The National Cherry Blossom Festival is happening right now in Washington D.C. This spectacular springtime event is something I have always wanted to attend, just so I could experience the beautiful scenery.

I imagine myself walking along a winding path under a majestic canopy of limbs, basking in a shower of blossoms raining down.

I love the thought of a sweet little goldfinch sitting atop the branches, creating such a wonderful contrast of warm yellows among the soft pinks hues of the cherry blossom flowers.

Spring to Summer, sudden bursts of yellow

Everywhere I look there is green. Sprouts peeking up through the ground and the unfolding of bright green leaves on the trees, except for the daffodils. They are in FULL bloom!

Such beautiful bursts of sunny yellow dot the surrounding landscapes of my neighborhood. I can not help but smile when I look at them.
"For oft, when on my couch I lie,
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils."

-William Wordsworth

Spring to Summer, Robins a plenty

My pace has hastened over these many weeks. As of late, there is so much preparation to do for upcoming trips away from home. These days will not end for sometime, so I am resigned to making only quick visits outside. Yet, I miss the long lingering moments.

Everytime I gaze out the windows, I see Robins. I have not been able to keep count of the number of them that have been visiting my yard. When I see one there is always two or three more close. Several are quite large, and I wonder if they are females carrying eggs. I do hope at least one will decide to nest in our trees.

I have allowed myself a few moments in the studio to dream among the pages of Spring's Season Journal, and capture my red-breasted friends..
I dreamt of you, dear Robin,
sweet visions in the night
filled with songs and sunshine,
Building a nest from words
scattered to the wind.

And I ask of you, dear Robin,
do not let these moments end,
nor spread your wings to fly away,
please linger amidst this longing
if only for one more day.

Spring to Summer, a holiday

Although it is a little early to be seeing rabbits here and there... scurrying about... in honor of Easter, I could not help but rumage through some old photos of past visitors and find a suitable portrait to paint for the pages in my Season's Journal.

I decided to use a small remnant of muslin fabric I had on the worktable that kept being shuffled around to various corners everytime I began a new endeavor.

Just a small ode to a very bunny holiday.
Hope your weekend was filled with sweet treats and sunny days!

Spring to Summer, the romance of it

I have read that we, as humans, are in large part influenced by our experiences and surroundings. If this is truly the case, then there is no question that my romance with flowers began at an early age.

As a child, I remember my grandfather always having an enormous garden. The entire side yard, which was the size of an acre, always included several rows of flowers planted among a majority of vegetables.

Not only did he have this hand planted acre to maintain, he also managed a big rose garden that surrounded the whole house, plus an incredibly tall hedgerow of honeysuckle vines on the entire west side of his property.

The honeysuckles were my favorite. Every time I visited, I made a trip down to the hedgerow. As you drew closer to the vines, you could smell their sweet fragrance, and I loved tasting the little bits of nectar from the trumpet flowers.

It would be a long time before I would feel this sort of influence from flowers again in my life. Not until I began painting in college, and my watercolor teacher took us on a field trip to the local botanical garden.

Although I had lived in Wichita for quite sometime, I never knew about this Eden located in the heart of a bustling city. The site was incredible and filled to the brim with a multitude of colorful flower varieties. Those weeks spent on location, painting "en plein air", were sheer heaven.

It was also a time in my life where I was really starting to spread my wings, and come into my own as an artist. I spent hour after hour sitting among the flowers.... painting away, so you can image the connection I felt to these delicate treasures.

I continued using beautiful botancials as the main subject in my art for a number of years, until my interests lead me toward other inspirations from nature.

But while working in this Spring journal that love affair with mother nature's gems has begun to take hold of me and inspire my art once again.

Spring to Summer, a beginning

After spending a full week feeling very under the weather, I am overjoyed to be back in the familiar surroundings of my studio. I am terribly behind and have so much to do. However, I have been quite anxious to begin creating pages in this new season journal.

Eager to record the details of a Spring that is beginning to slowly creep in around me that I could not help but to set my list of to-dos aside.

Saturday was my first time outside in four days. I marveled at the changes that had occurred since the last Monday when I returned from Portland. Buds and leaves are now protruding from once bare branches. The small green stems of flowers are peeking up from between the remnants of withered foliage. And set forth as a melody to a song, I listened to the conversation between a pair of chickadees.

All these signs of Spring to inspires my first pages.

"Slayer of winter, art thou here again?
O welcome, thou that bring'st the summer nigh!
The bitter wind makes not thy victory vain,
Nor will we mock thee for thy faint blue sky.
Welcome, O March! whose kindly days and dry
Make April ready for the throstle's song.
Thou first redresser of the winter's wrong!

Yea, welcome, March! and though I die ere June,
Yet for the hope of life I give thee praise,
Striving to swell the burden of the tune
That even now I hear thy brown birds raise,"

-William Morris