Desert Spring
24×36 Inches
Acrylic on panel
©2002 Lucinda Howe

Every year it happens.  Spring.  Suddenly there are warm days and sunshine.  Daffodils and forsythia are blooming.  It’s a great time to be outdoors painting or gardening. Whatever else I had planned fades into the background.   So I grab my paints and head outside where I see shrubs that need to be pruned and kale waiting to be transplanted.  I go over to Riverbanks Botanical garden to see what’s in bloom, coming home with a few small drawings of hellebores to research for my shade garden.  I’ve made copious notes about things in bloom, but no paintings.

Painting or gardening… painting or gardening…  Hmmmm… it’s a dilemma for me since I love both.   However, I’ve been painting for 20 years and gardening all my life, so the gardening usually wins this time of year.

Since gardening is on my mind this week, I’m featuring a painting from a long-ago trip to the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona.   The yellows in this piece remind me of the flowers and sunlight that we’re seeing here this week.