Catch Up

The Pines - 20 X 24 - SOLD

So this happens to be the second painting I sold at Trails End Gallery during my June Featured Artist opening. If you'll look back several entries you will see the picture of the pines I took upon which this painting is based. It turned out to be an inspired choice. As the collectors who chose it mention - it has an Asian appeal and the bold colors on top of the receded grid make it an interesting, more realistic painting for me.

I have been busy trying to catch up and put my house and the people and animals that reside with me back into a semblance of normality. This has meant 3 trips to the vet in a haze of anxiety over one of our dogs - Delilah, a samoyed who we have had the great pleasure of looking after over these last 12 years. She developed Addison's disease (the inability to produce and balance salts and sugars in her body and adrenaline to respond to stress and sudden activity) when she was 3 years old and it has meant a monthly shot and a daily dose of prednisone. When she had her first crisis, it took 5 nerve wracking days whereupon she didn't eat or drink, to diagnose and about 30 minutes to bring her out of it. This time - being the first time since the first time - we recognized the symptoms within a few hours, got her to the vet and she is now back in balance. Scary though!

Delilah

Next we did a whirlwind clean up job on the house so a further deep clean will be in the works. The dishes still seem to pile up amazingly fast.

Most of all my garden has been calling to me and specifically it is the time of year to get some annual flowers potted up for the deck. I'll take some pictures of the finished pots. It has rained so much in the last week that hardly any watering has needed to be done.

This year I waited till June 1st to get anything other than bulbs in the ground or in the pot. The summers start later here and don't really build up any heat till late August. If I plant in April everything except lettuce and spinach stays so wet that they rot or the seeds never get started at all. Even then I've got to go out and give the said salad makings a good regular drench of liquid fertilizer high on the nitrogen to get them producing leaves.

Having said this you'll think that coastal Washington is a bad place to garden but not so. We get bumper crops of blueberries and cranberries and bulbs like Dahlia's and gladiolus and Crocosmia and Calla Lillies in fact many perennials, just thrive and are in fact signature plants for here in the summer. It's just that nearly every place is a microclimate and you have to find what will grow well in your particular location, with your particular wind, sun/shade, salt spray, clay or sand etc. Inevitably some great things can be found to grow.

I've been experimenting with natives such as ninebark, douglas spirea, wild honeysuckle, indian plum and wild currants and find they make a beautiful shrub border that fits in so well with everything else around and are tough enough to really stand the occassionally extreme climate of the coast.

Well more gardening and back in the studio tomorrow! Have fun yourselves!