Often the irregular, abnormal, development is the most remarkable. Copyright 2018 Pamela Breitberg
As if this little flower isn’t pretty enough, it grows it’s own crown. Copyright 2018 Pamela Breitberg
Floral crowns…
glory
Spending hours studying a miracle…
Japanese Anemone. I make NO claim on being a master artist who is able to capture the full wonders of this flower. Copyright 2018 Pamela
Enclosed courtyard at the Bonnet House, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. In the far right you can see the area set aside for art classes. Copyright 2018 Pamela Breitberg
For some this seems very hoaky I’m sure. But yesterday I spent six and a half hours at the Bonnet House’s lovely enclosed courtyard working on my second painting. I chose, as my subject, a photograph I took a few years back of one of my garden Japanese Anemones. I can easily say I was exhausted when I got home; my brain was worn out.
I literally spent the day thinking, studying this tiny flower. Every petal, every shadow, every curve and curl was studied and mentally dissected for detail. The leaves in the background were studied just as intently for color and light/shadow. My teacher showed me how to make the other buds and blooms fade out of focus. Hours were spent on each petals. The flower showed pollen spilling onto the pedals; it would soon be time for it to enter it’s next stage of life as a seedhead.
As I spent this time I appreciated the beauty, the gracefulness of this creation. It is one of the last of season’s blooms in Chicago along with the Asters. The Japanese Anemone is an agressive plant requiring me to tame it’s appearance in my garden to places of my design. Over the years I removed many “volunteers” that tried entering other areas of the garden. But the quiet beauty, the graceful elegance of the flowers always overcame any bad aspects of the plants.
I no longer have a private garden; we downsized to a lovely condominium. Fortunately Chicago’s Lincoln Park includes Japanese Anemone in it’s mix of perennials.
While I sit here in Florida gazing at this Japanese Anemone I still a drawn to it’s subtle, simple, design. Evidence of one more miracle. The painting has elements of being done by a beginner. For me the joy was the process of creation, trying to capture it’s natural beauty and specialness.
A blessed Passover and Easter to all.
Freedom to bind…
This is a member of the lovely vining Morning Glory family, opening its blossoms as the morning light highlights its beauty. However, this species is one of those non-native, Eurasian varieties that is a dreaded invasive visitor in American gardens. Known as Field Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) I enjoyed taking its portrait during a morning bike ride along a Lake Michigan pathway in Lincoln Park, far from any cultivated gardens. They appeared a fair distance from a prairie restoration area and were isolated from the golf course by a stone wall making their appearance more tolerable to the native purist. This Bind Weed did emulate its name wrapping around other vegetation proliferating this informal, unplanned area of horticulture.
Portrait of an invader (pretty but unfriendly). Copyright 2017 Pamela Breitberg
Catching the sunlight. Copyright 2017 Pamela Breitberg
Busy morning on the Bind Weed Morning Glory. Copyright 2017 Pamela Breitberg
Glory of the spring…
Chipmunk enjoying spring’s warming. copyright 2015 Pamela Breitberg
I’m thinking “glory of no snow” as temperatures reach the 60s today. This morning a chipmunk peaked its head outside its hole and surveyed springtime. The ground level perspective of Glory of the Snow (Chionodoxa luciliae)
yields a feeling of strength for these dainty blooms. These bulbs are hardy, surviving many northern winters. They rise through the yet-to-recover, evergreen Pachysandra groundcover. In a month, snow and the Glory of the Snow will be faint memories as perennial growths elevate summer’s arrival.
Glory of the Snow rises from the warming Earth. copyright 2015, Pamela Breitberg