Three Old Facebook Posts

Last July, when my wife and our two daughters were off in Missouri for a family reunion, I wrote three Facebook posts. Here they are.

Looming First Iris

Come late June early each morning
as the sun rises to greet the flowers

of our terraced garden out front

we rise and anticipate the first Iris bloom.

As the Iris patch turns soft purple

Brenda will rise early to paint.

Looming First Iris
http://www.brendajclark.com/paintingf15.htm

A Horticulturalist’s Visit

Late Sunday afternoon a horticulturalist visited our gallery.

“The color pulled me in,” she said. “That large canvas depicting a look-in on your garden has Hollyhocks. Was it painted some time in late summer?” she asked.

Garden Outback
http://www.brendajclark.com/paintingf14.htm

After our visitor had toured the gallery and seen Brenda’s several Poppies and Iris paintings, she noted how these flowers bloom about the same time in June.

When I described the two beds of these flowers at home, the visitor proudly acknowledged her college degree and profession, and spoke at length about Brenda’s two Iris paintings: Looming First Iris I and Looming First Iris II. (The first is acrylic on arches paper, the second acrylic on wood block.)

Our visiting horticulturalist seemed to like both, stating fondly how she came to love the Iris  as a flower when studying Van Gogh’s still life paintings of them.

She liked the paper piece for the way Brenda’s Iris seemed to be the sole being in its universe and engulfed by lush green foliage.

The wood block’s rich contrast of a bright yellow background and green stems surrounding the Iris, and the swirling brush strokes with Impasto edges, fascinated this horticulturalist.

Myself, for summer 2013, I like Brenda’s painting, Poppies ‘n Iris and Me, inside a wood shadow box.

Patron and former art professor, Ray Betts, noted that Brenda’s work some times achieves a “stained-glass effect.” I guess he’s right; the shapes of the flowers, their stems and leaves, do project this effect. 

Lyrical Realists
http://www.brendajclark.com/news8.htm

“Why guess,” perhaps I should say. An evening like tonight is a fine time for a visit to the gallery, or for sipping a glass of wine while checking out Brenda’s work online.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

I've changed my mind.

Again.

The evening of my last post - A Horticulturalist's Visit - my favorite flower painting for the summer was Poppies 'n Iris and Me.

I guess it's my fine art whim, being at the gallery almost daily.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes.

This morning, I am choosing Poppies at the Wellhead.

It' almost like a still-life painting. A findly woven tapestry with it's disappearing space, and hints of Catmint and Chives amidst so many Poppy blooms.

A sole plant that my father and mother gave to Brenda and me for our anniversary during our first June in Leland.

You want to put this painting in a vase, and water it.

Does anyone have a really large vase that I can borrow?