Observing Through My Camera

Christmas Lima Beans

With the necessary changes in how I spend my time during the summer months comes a change in focus for my art. My reduced painting time translates into more time in the garden observing the way my plants grow and change and observing the forms and colors. I don't claim to be a photographer, but I do think that looking at objects through a lens is a great way to sharpen your skill set. When working in nature you don't always have the ability to manipulate your subject and it forces you to work with what you've been given.  It requires a heightened awareness for composition, color and the interplay of objects. In the garden this can be challenging. You have to put yourself in the right position to capture the scene since you can't arrange the plants the way you want to, but you have to do it without damaging the plants around you.

Christmas Lima Bean

Cucumber

I love looking at new growth on plants in the cucurbitaceae family. They feel so energetic, twisting and turning and exploding into the world. To me it's the garden's fireworks display. 

Cucumber

Butternut Squash

Butternut Squash

Butternut Squash

Butternut Squash

The Harvest is Beginning

For the next couple of weeks I think that painting is going to take a back seat to gardening and harvesting food. I was trying to divide time equally between the two activities, but I can no longer pretend that I have the time for both. Since I am charged with the full time care of my three kiddos, painting, gardening and food preservation used fall into the cracks in my days and often lead to late nights. Due to my husband's recent change in work schedule to four work days/week however,  I have one full day each week to work on rebuilding a little professional niche for myself. I was hoping that with this new schedule this summer I wouldn't have to compromise as much as previous years. I still consider gardening and harvesting a big part of my contribution to our family and so far painting, although deeply satisfying, has not been as lucrative as a freezer full of food.

I had plans to paint on this week's professional day, but within the first hour of the day I had a big pile of fresh, beautiful tomatoes staring me down. 

I ended up spending a good portion of the day converting them from raw fruit into canned goods instead. I have never canned tomatoes before. I usually puree and freeze them, but last fall my husband decided to take up deer hunting after a 13 or 14 year hiatus and filled our freezer to the brim with venison. So this year, most of the tomato preservation will have to be in a form that doesn't require electricity to store. 

I have to say that I find canning incredibly satisfying. I love the idea of having shelves full of food that I started from seed and nurtured through high heat and drought. I don't have to question if pesticides were used, but I don't have to pay extra for organic. I don't have to calculate how many miles the food travelled, how much oil was consumed in the production of my food, or worry about all the waste from the packaging. Nor do I need to worry if workers were maltreated at any point during the production of my food (read Tomatoland by Barry Estabrook for some alarming insight). Yes, I love canning, and if I do it in the evening I treat myself to a glass of wine and some good music while I work. 

Trouble in the Garden

When I returned home from our last vacation I wasn't surprised to see that most of the plants were struggling. I had given the entire garden a good soaking before I left, but the heat and the pests took their toll.

All of my zucchini plants were dead, very dead. The thought of a garden without zucchini makes me sad, very sad. 

I have some lovely blossoms on my cucumbers, but so far none of them have actually become fruit.

There is a lot of new growth on the cucumber plants though, so I'm still holding out hope.

Most of the leaves on the green bean plants are curled up and many are a little crisp around the edges from heat and drought. (I still think the pattern on the leaves is beautiful though.)

My butternut squash plants are still putting out new growth too, but most of the sections of plants look wilted and the blossoms look droopy. 

Hopefully with a little TLC and some consistent watering I can bring some of it back, but I know I have to say good bye to the zucchini. I may try to plant some new seeds and if the fall is uncharacteristically warm, perhaps I will get a few fruits for zucchini bread or for a delicious sauteed side at dinner.

This time it was a family reunion

My family and I just returned home from an eight day whirlwind trip to Colorado. We visited three different family groups and had loads of fun hiking to waterfalls, climbing rocks, playing on go-karts and bumper boats, going down water slides, visiting the zoo and ofcourse eating.

The kids ran everywhere they went at full speed. 

They became "expert" rock climbers.

The waterfalls were stunning.

The mountains were majestic.

The Henry Doorly Omaha Zoo was our final stop on our way home.

It did not disappoint.

I deliberately left all of my art supplies at home on this trip. I wanted to give myself some distance from this latest series of paintings and take any spare time I might have to read the stack of books I have been neglecting. 

I only had time to indulge in Patti Smith's book "Just Kids". It is her memoir about her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. It was wonderful. I was captivated by the way she wrote about the devotion that she and Robert Mapplethorpe shared for each other and their art. It was fascinating to read about the way in which their talents evolved over time. It is written without any hint of pretension.  

Coming home from this trip was exciting this time. Instead of dreading the mountains of laundry and clean up and schedule readjustment, I was anxious to get back to work. I missed painting. It was great to have had a little distance from them so that I could come back with fresh eyes. And Patti Smith served as a motivating force through her passion for her own art to fill my head with new ideas and to look at my old ideas from a different prespective and most of all to simply make time to work every day. 

Kentucky Wonder Bush

5 1/8 x 4 1/2 x 5/8"

Oil on gessoed wood

I love sprouting bean seeds because the way the roots emerge and grow usually produces shapes and forms that I really enjoy working with. The last time I was at the gardening store I bought several different packages of beans for planting in my garden and sprouting for my art. The great thing about both activities is that each one is always an experiment. This year I am trying to plant a few varieties of beans in my garden in case they react slightly different to this crazy up and down weather we're experiencing and I kind of enjoy doing taste tests with the different beans. For my artistic purposes each variety of bean has a slightly different color and size, the color however is usually white, a shade of beige or black. When I opened the Kentucky Wonder Bush package I was delighted to find these lovely purply-pink beans. 

It was fun to vary my color palette a little and work with a lighter background. I look forward to playing with these beans some more and to seeing how they taste in a few weeks!