One more day of gardening and hopefully if the thunderstorms stop, a hike in the woods to pick more huckleberries. Three days in a row of gardening, hiking and picking is physically challenging. A few years ago I spent a week at Feathered Pipe in Montana for a yoga intensive and this schedule feels similar. It is nice after the necessary bath to fall into bed at the end of the day feeling that your body and mind has been fully engaged and stimulated. The colors of flowers are amazing as well as inspiring. I will take all these wonderful color combinations into the studio when I paint.
Today I was greeted by a new flowering in my succulent bed.It is a variety of the common hens and chicks that I picked up at a nursery locally that has many varieties succulents. A perfect combination of pink, red-violet, yellow and green-yellow with green foliage. Also interesting is the pattern its petals, the reproductive system and the round leaves of the faded out foliage of another plant behind the flower.
I haven't decided which will be the next painting I start but I have it narrowed down to one of two ideas. One a scene from the massacres that are happening in Darfur and the other is a scene I saw and embellished (a young boy, 10 ducklings, a pond and two dogs) which would be told in a story telling three part painting.
