Not a lot to show as far as art.... although I have been busy with the paint brushes. Doing a lot of experiments and practicing with technique and color mixing in watercolor.
In the meantime, we're still in the grip of the awful heat/humidity wave (it's 97 degrees now and expected to hit 99 or 100) so I'm out in the garden almost every morning watering. Since we live out in the country we're fortunate to have a deep well so I don't have to worry about a large water bill. Plus, the water goes back into the ground .... where, after it filters down through a couple of hundred feet of soil, sand and rock that purifies it, it will eventually get pumped out again for re-use. Recycling at its best!
I'm posting a few pics from my garden. Everything is growing nicely. After I finish watering, I collect the day's harvest... which you see pictured in the basket. For dinner tonight we're having a fresh Green Leaf lettuce salad with grilled chicken breast, pecans, mandarin oranges.. and the following veggies:(which I grew myself! I sound like a proud Mom, don't I? ;-) cucumbers, tomatoes, squash and sugar snap peas. Yummy! Blackberries and ice cream for dessert.
When I get around to it I'll be posting most of these pics in the RIL (Reference Image Library) on WetCanvas as resource material for other artists. If you see anything you'd like to use in a painting, email me and I'll send you the high res image for clarity.
P.S. The last four pics (for city slickers and non-Southerners who are wondering what that strange plant is) are of a field of tobacco across from our house. Years ago you saw tobacco fields everywhere in the South. Nowadays, with the health risks associated with tobacco use and the influx of cheaper foreign tobacco, it's almost a novelty to see a field of tobacco. I wanted to record this while I had the chance, before fields of tobacco were, well, gone with the wind ;-). The first two pics are the blossoms on the top of the tobacco stalk (ironic that the blooms are so pretty) and the last two pics show the plants in the field. A whole culture used to revolve around tobacco - working in tobacco during the summer paid for many kid's school clothes in the Fall; and bought me my first car - but that's a story for another day.
22 comments:
LOVE all those wonderful captures!! Great garden!! We plucked a few grape tomatoes (the rest still mighty green), and picked a gallon of blueberries! My lettuce is already bolted and one squash got hit with a borer. And yes, it's hotter than hades ... and everything needs water! LOL
In the 5th photo down what is that flower?
The tobacco flower is very complex, have you tried your hand at painting one ? Especially those colours.
Envy you your vegetables haul. Wish I had a garden big enough. Just flowers and snails in mine.
Your garden sounds wonderful and your harvest basket looks full of pretty and scrumptious things. Funny how times change and how things that used to be part of everyday life are disappearing now - I was reading the other day about the history of the women who worked at the John Player tobacco factory in Nottingham throughout the 20th century - the industries the city relied on for work - mainly lace, cycles and tobacco now almost gone:)
Your photos are always so pretty! We're getting fresh veggies also and finally got a ripe tomato yesterday (we planted a bit late because of the extra cold winter! It officially feels like summer when you have that first tomato sandwich!
Tobacco is vanishing from the fields around here too but maybe it will make a comeback with a more noble purpose. I can't help but feel there's an as yet unknown property to it that will maybe even cure cancer instead of causing it!
Enjoy your bounty - it looks scrumptious!
Bumper harvest!
We have a few months to go before the blackberries, apples, pears and damsons will be ready in our garden ... but we've had a good crop of strawberries - the peppers and tomatoes are doing well in the greenhouse and we have broad beans about ready to pick!
Hope it cools down a little for you soon
I have never seen a tobacco before even in pictures..! I enjoyed all the flora , had a feeling of going through a beautiful garden! Each picture will make a beautiful painting.
Thanks all for the enjoyable comments.. sure do love hearing from you guys.. interesting how different people pick up on different things.
Jeanne: the flower in question is a Mandevilla. It's a tropical vine - needs full sun... and it's certainly getting it these days. The 6th photo is the same blossom from a different angle.
Oooh, I want to come to dinner at your house! Beautiful photos, too. Congratulations on the harvest!
Love the shot of the blackberries! I'll have to send you an email for that one. The garden seems to be doing quite well despite the heat–we're having it too.
When I was little my grandparents live in North Georgia, almost to the state lines of TN/SC/NC. I detested the ride because it was either fields of peanuts or fields of tobacco and to a 12 year old it was boring!!!
Little did I know......
Yikes! I think it's hotter there than it is here! Beautiful pictures! Dinner sounds perfect with vegetables that you grew... Mmmmm...
I'm going to sound like more of a city slicker than my Las Vegas born husband, but I'd never seen a tobacco field before. What a beautiful plant it is! I hope Jan is right and something good comes from it someday.
Great photos! Being raised in Danville, VA,living in VA for 50+ years, and just moving from Southside Va to Ohio last September, I miss seeing the beautiful tobacco plants. Their blooms are so pretty. South Boston, VA had tobacco plants in planters along the main street. In the past, I posted tobacco hanging in the barns curing. Definitely sights I don't see here in Ohio.
I love all of your pictures, and I enjoy reading your blog.
Wow thanks for the wonderful photos. Tobacco, my Uncle grew tobacco for years and dried it in the barns. I remember looking up at it when we played there.
Thanks for the memories!
Vicki
I'm glad you explained about the tobacco plant, since I'm not a Souterner:)
As a teen I worked picking raspberries for the clothes I wanted and art materials.
Beautiful photos! Your flowers and vegies look so very good. I wish we could have more of a garden here but we're in the woods. A lot of tobacco was grown up here in the mountains too. With a relatively small plot a family could have a good supplement to their income. It seems most of those tobacco plots have disappeared in recent years though.
Wonderful photos! Fresh veggies are so yummy. Neither of us like working in the yard, we have to rely on friends. We do get home grown tomatoes from Mike and Janice. Thanks..... I enjoy just seeing your bounty.
What a wonderful collection of photos from your garden. You certainly have an amazing garden!!
I would love to attempt to paint that picture (close-up) of the berries some time!!
Your garden looks beautiful and fresh! What delicious fruit and vegetables from the garden.
My garden is too small for a vegetable garden :(
Just a few strawberries and a blackberry.
But I do have tobacco plants They smell so lovely in the evening
Beautiful photos and garden. Love them, miss not seeing things like that in Arizona.
Lovely photos and interesting blog, which I'm now following :)
Loved the practice watercolours too - especially when I read which books they're from - as I own the same books! xx
I'm always lost in admiration for people who can paint and garden... and to provide for your own table like this is... wow! I grew up in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, which was covered with tobacco farms - quite a nostalgic trip to see these flowers again!
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