Spring & Summer Landscape Photos

These photos were all taken in May-July in my front and side yards.

I planted a few dozen hybrid tulips in the fall, imagining our front yard bursting with color in the spring. They bloomed late and then didn't stick around long (I didn't spray enough deer repellent, and the deer that frequent our subdivision ate most of them), but I did manage to grab a couple great photos:

I also took pictures of the pretty blossoms on the crabapple tree in our front yard, as well as the red lilies and roses:

My hydrangea bushes (I have one very large one, and two small ones now) are also doing well (the large one especially):

The biggest front yard story of the spring/summer, however, was this little mama duck, who made a nest in our bushes, incubated 8 or 9 eggs, and then one day vanished - leaving one sad, unhatched egg behind.

Last fall, we also did a lot of work to our side yard landscaping, planting several hosta, ferns, and astilbe - all of which, I'm happy to say, came back and looked great this spring/summer, with little watering or attention given on our parts. I love the pop of color on the astilbe, especially:

Blake's Custom Watercolor Bouquet Painting

I had another custom watercolor commission in September, through this listing in my Etsy shop. Blake purchased this 8x10" painting and sent me a photo of his wife's wedding bouquet (and her grandmother's gold bracelets, which were tied into the bouquet's ribbon).

Here are the initial soft layers, building up color:

Once the general colors and shapes were down, I started adding more details.

The plant sprigs poking out of the bouquet were not quite green - in the photo they were more white-ish, with sort of a frosted green look. First I painted the feathery leaves with green and blue watercolor, and then I went over them with dots of white acrylic paint.

I also used gold metallic watercolor paint for the bracelets, to give them just a bit of sparkle.

The final touch was adding purplish-red stripes to some of the far back white petals.

Here is the completed painting (source photograph on the left, painting on the right):

If you would like to purchase your own custom watercolor bouquet, check out this listing in my Etsy shop!

Autumn Flora Photos

I didn't have much free time to snap a lot of photographs of changing leaves this year, but I did take some pictures of the very early hints of fall color on a trail walk along the Paint Creek trail in September, and (of course), documented the landscape work my husband and I did in October. I knew the hydrangea, hosta, ferns, and astilbe we planted would likely never look so good again, so I had to take a couple pictures of them when they were freshly planted. :) We also planted tulip bulbs in our front yard - and I'm hoping to see the rewards of that job come springtime!

Here are the (few) autumn photos I took of plants this year:

September on the Paint Creek Trail

September on the Paint Creek Trail

Someone left these pretty yellow flowers behind on a Paint Creek Trail footbridge

The new hydrangea bush that we planted in our front yard

The four new Earth Angel Hosta we planted along the north side of the house

We also planted four Lady Fern and two Astilbe plants along the north side of the house

And here's a bonus photo of a carnation bouquet on my parent's kitchen table

"28 Years" - Year #15

For general information about this 22"x30" colored pencil drawing, see this blog post.
For more information about the flower symbolism I used (Years 15-28) and life events that led me to select those particular flowers, see this blog post.

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This 15th "year" marks the first mini-drawing of the third row - the halfway mark on this large piece. To symbolize this year, I decided on cherry blossom and fern as my plants of choice.

• Cherry Blossom: symbol of transience, good education, womanhood, love, wisdom, and the short lived beauty of youth
• Fern: symbol of sincerity

I first drew outlines of the plants on black paper:

I used these two botanical drawings (which I do not own; I found them on Google) as reference while I worked:

I drew the fern in the background first, since I knew this would be a one-step drawing. I outlined and drew it all at once, making sure my pencil was sharp enough to get some crisp leafy lines.

Then I lightly sketched in the cherry blossom flowers.

To complete this "year," I next colored in the cherry blossoms with shades of pink and white - and dark purple for the inside details.

Here is the drawing so far. The first two rows are completed, and now the third row has begun!