"Lenten Rose" (watercolor on paper; 6" x 8") sold

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matted size: 10" x 12"

Lenten Rose, or hellebore, is a tough plant whose foliage stays green all winter, then starts blooming in late winter.  From its delicate appearance, however, I bet you wouldn't know it!  This is the first time I have ever painted lenten roses.  I have a feeling that it won't be the last.

If you want to win a painting from my "Spring Fever" series at the end of the month, please sign in to follow my blog.  Thanks!

"Dogwood and Scabiosa" (watercolor on paper; 9" x 7")

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matted size: 14" x 11"

The dogwood in the painting is the late-blooming variety with pointy petals.  Scabiosa is also called pincushion flowers.  One of the longest blooming perennials, pincushion flowers have old-fashioned charm, which I think complement the dogwood perfectly. They get their name from the shape of their flowers; don't you think they resemble little pincushions?

In case you are wondering, "Dogwood and Scabiosa" is the tenth in my "Spring Fever" series.  If you want to win a painting from the series at the end of the month, please sign in to follow my blog.  Thanks!

"Pink Lungwort" (watercolor on Yupo; 8 1/2" x 8 1/2") sold

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The lungwort is an invasive, shade-loving palnt.  It's taking over one side of my garden. I keep digging them up and sharing them with my gardening friends.  We all love it!  The matted size is 12 x 12".

If you want to win a painting from my "Pastry Pleasure" series at the end of the month, please sign in to follow my blog.  Thanks!

"Primrose Season" (oil on canvas; 10" x 10") sold

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Siebold's primroses are blooming under a canopy of a tree.  What a bright, cheerful sight it is! Obviously it is not the primrose season yet.  I took the reference photo for the painting last April at the Green Spring Gardens Park in Alexandria, VA.  It took almost a year to get around to paint these lovely flowers because I was intimidated by the look of the lettuce-like leaves.  Yes, I often get stymied by my own timidity!

Yesterday I decided to go for it.  Why not?  I am pleased with the result.  I am even more pleased with the fact that I painted on a day that started out rather lousily.  I had waken up feeling tired and achy.  I was tempted to take a day off.  In the end, I thought better of it and started painting.  And it happened again.  Almost immediately I felt more energetic and alive.  I really don't know how I lived before I discovered art.

Reference photo

"Pink Phlox" (oil on linen; 8" x 10") sold

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Original state, then titled "Rock Garden Phlox"

I am feeling better.  Yeah!  Yesterday I cleaned up my studio, then went through my photo stash looking for inspiring pictures for about two hours.  My stamina wasn't yet quite up to speed unfortunately, so I took a rest and decided to work on an old painting instead of starting from scratch.

"Rock Garden Phlox" is a year-old painting, which I once thought was one of the best florals I have ever done.  Well, that was then.  The tiny florets of the phlox, which I had found blooming at the rock garden at Green Spring Gardens Park in Alexandria, VA, were actually cool pink, not warm pink as in the original state.  I wanted more paint on the painting.  After all, these things are called oil paintings, not oil washes, right?  I also thought that I could strengthen the feeling of light striking a few petals and dead stems here and there.

So I got to work.  An hour and a half later, I came up with "Pink Phlox."  What do you think?

"Bleeding Heart Love" (oil on linen; 8" x 10") sold

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You don't have to be a bleeding-heart Liberal to love the bleeding heart.  It has attractive mounded foliage with arching stems of delicate, heart-shaped flowers.  Indeed, I consider it, not the rose, the most loving plant.  Its heart is so full of love that it splits up to show its innards!  When she was little, my daughter used to pick a bleeding heart and give it to me as a token of her love.  On top of its lovely form, it thrives in moist shade gardens.  Perfect!

I took the above picture in mid-April last year.  It is not blooming yet, although I am sure it will send me to a floral heaven way before that time this year.  It's been in the 70's everyday; it is even warmer today.  Dwarf sour cherries are blooming in my garden; they didn't yesterday.  I am in the midst of a serious spring fever, painting away spring flowers everyday.  I couldn't wait for bleeding hearts until April.

Dwarf Sour Cherries blooming in my garden

So I printed out the reference photo and happily painted "Bleeding Heart Love."  Quite a bit of drawing though.  You see, love does not come by without hard work.