When my son was ten years old he was really into horticulture. We were living in Pittsburgh at the time and would spend Saturday mornings at the Carnegie Library, where he would carry as many books on gardening as he could to one of the oversized tables. He would diligently pore through the stack, taking as many notes as he could in the three hours that his sister was at her art class. That summer we ate a lot of zucchini and zucchini blossoms, which he learned were best if breaded and fried. That same summer we moved back to Virginia, where we had a lot more land to grow on, but the soil, the color of rust, was barren of produce. He was still ambitious and determined so we got him a little greenhouse that would later blow away during a bad storm. He would spend any money he had on plants and even bought a $35 lemon tree. I know he was so excited just to envision all the lemons the tree would produce in the time to come. Although it did produce a little baby lemon at first, it never amounted to much, and one by one the leaves began to fall off. Virginia just isn’t meant for growing lemons. He learned the hard way that gardening takes more than just wanting to have a garden. It takes years of hard work and learning about the land and knowing the land, it takes a lot of love and dedication, and sometimes it takes living in the right place to be able to harvest a healthy lemon. While his lemon phase is over, he’s now a bit older and into a sourdough phase and having much more success. So much in life is like this. You try, you fail, you fail again, you get deflated, and sometimes you keep trying or you realize it’s just not working so you try something else. It’s especially hard when you really, really want it to work out. Painting still feels like that to me sometimes and so does pottery, which I have actually put more hours into than painting at this point in my life. This painting of a lemon is just the beginning and while I am further on it than what you see here, I am nowhere near to being finished. When I first started it I was anxious, excited, frustrated, and a bit overwhelmed. I swear I feel this way every time I start a painting, but it hasn’t stopped me yet.
three things….
First, I am so happy that Trekell Art Supplies has accepted my application to be an affiliate. For years and years, I have been a Blick customer, but they wouldn’t approve of me as an affiliate, even though I taught classes and gave them so much business. When the quarantine hit I noticed Blick took away its usual coupons that would usually save some, but not much when applied to each order. Understandable, but still, it felt like the wrong thing to do. While Blick is a family-owned business, it’s the world’s oldest and largest art supplier and I think it’s better to spread things out than let one company get so big. I sought out a smaller company and found Trekell. So far, I have placed three orders and have been very happy with each order. Until I can shop at my local art supply store I will be hanging out in the online Trekell shop. If you would like to check them out you can get $5 off your first order by clicking here. Anytime you shop there and want to help me out you can click on the Trekell link above. For you to use affiliate links is very helpful, so thank you. Ps. I love their brushes! The Legion brushes are so worth it!
White Flower Balm Oil is amazing if you don’t mind smelling like one of those little thick coined pink shaped candies.
The work of Simone Saunders. I love her hand-tufted textiles and the use of bold color!