Layering the Seasons...

Coral Bark setting the Autumn mood

 I LOVE watching the seasons change and have tried to plan and plant my garden accordingly.  When planning focal points for my garden, I try to make sure there is something of interest for each season.  One of my favorite shrubs is the purple smoke tree.  I love to plant clematis beneath it to weave throughout the shrub with it's sweet blooms peeking through as the spring leaves emerge.  

Purple Smoke Tree with "Happy Jack" clematis

Later, in the Autumn- the leaves turn a brilliant crimson before dropping to reveal the beautiful structure of it's branches.  In my back gardens, I have one placed with a coral bark maple.  One of the things I love about Georgia autumns, is we have a slow and steady show- the coral bark is usually one of my first trees to show it's colors and then, as it begins to fade, the smoke tree puts in her performance.  

Smoke tree nearing the end of it's performance- wish I'd snapped this a couple days ago!

KiKi boots "helping" with an arrangement

Once the leaves have fallen, the brilliant crimson of the coral bark takes center stage. I have to admit that I also plan my garden to provide me with beautiful material to decorate my home.  I also, use my garden a LOT for my paintings.  

"Moondance" available as a card or print

This one happened by accident- I'd taken the Thanksgiving arrangement outside (didn't have the heart to throw something so beautiful away!) to make room for Christmasing....loved the composition so much that it had to become  painting!  And I loved painting my "Moon man" so much, that he's made multiple appearances in my art......

"Live, Love, Laugh" available in my shop

"Greetings of the Season" available in my shop

My favorite spot in the garden

I hope you're enjoying Autumn as much as I am- 

it's such a beautiful way to be thankful in this giving season.

Cheers!

Stephanie

Down with the Dahlias....

At the entrance to my back gardens

There are a few kinds of flowers that I will ALWAYS love; foxgloves, roses, irises just to name a few.  BUT' in the last three years, I have fallen in LOVE with dahlias.  It began with me reading this article from the Middle sized Garden-  based in England, she lives in zone 8 like me and she says you DON'T have to dig up Dahlias for them to come back yearly.  It's a great article with lots of ideas and information- I highly recommend it!  

Thomas Edison (I think) from Eden Brothers Gardens

Anyway; D A H L I A S......I LOVE them!  Here in Decatur, GA, they start their show in May and most of them will continue their dance until first freeze.  Yes, their leaves will need a little attention in the heat and they DO need to be staked- but, come on- they are SO VERY worth it!

This week, we had our first freeze and with it, went the last of this years blooms.  I think, even frost burned, they are still quite wonderful.  It will hurt my heart to cut them down this weekend.  

"Emory Paul" from Eden Brothers

"Emory Paul" from Eden Brothers

"Emory Paul" from Eden Brothers

For the last two years, I've been working on a garden journal for others to be able to use for their own gardening notes, ideas and memories.  So, of COURSE I had to include dahlias!

Close up of my painting for the July "spread" available as a card or print in my shop

And this is how the journal page will look with numbers and lines for notes.  

More soon, I'm off to cut down and mulch my dahlias!

Cheers,

Stephanie

Baby, I'm BACK!

send in the clowns!

I have missed blogging so very much, but in the past five years, so much has happened, it has been a  whirlwind made up of buying and gutting our "forever" home, the world stopping via Covid, illnesses, starting a new business and just life in general.  It has been an exhausting handful of years and I've finally been able to re-evaluate my life and start living again.  Here's a brief recap of our home and garden design adventures......

                                                            home renovations, 

Our blank canvas!

dining and living rooms with the kitchen- three walls knocked out

my R E D kitchen to match my stained glass window

gardening dreams leading to installations.......this IS my happy place!

Always a work in progress.....

P U R P L E door to match my mini butterfly bushes!

I have eight Pugster Blue butterfly bushes along my front path- it looks like a freakin fairy tale in the summertime!

I wanted the back gardens to be more naturalized, just for sitting and relaxing.....it's a series of garden rooms with the focal point being our garden shed- AKA our Covid project.  We totally took advantage of home improvement delivery services!

Our once and future back gardens

it all started with a handful of azaleas......

our "breakneck" hill became garden steps 

the garden "shed" was our Covid project

a magical spot in the evening

We built our shed during C O V I D, then I was benched with incapacitating back problems, got better and then the next spring was once again out of service due to life altering SHINGLES (seriously, if you're over 50, GET the vaccination!)   Add all this into regular life, and I'm just now able to lift my head up get back to the business of living- this made me realize how much I missed blogging and the connections it offers.  So, long story short; I'm back!

2017: Year of the Dog

2016 ended up being "Year of the Cat" for me after I finally fulfilled my promise of a cat calendar.  And the calendar had a great response, in fact the only negative comments I received were, "But what about a dog calendar....?"  Unfortunately, I am a sloooow painter and I know realistically I can expect to complete 15-20 paintings a year, on a good year- that's more than 2 paintings a week, and I just can't whip them out like that!
So, with my top priority this year to be producing enough pup paintings to have a calendar by October, 2017 is now (at least for me) YEAR OF THE DOG!!!!
The only problem is I don't have dogs of my own so I need dog photos and permission to use them as models!  My favorites are holiday themes, garden settings or goofy, "Character" poses- please help!  If you have any great photos, you'd like me to paint, I'd be thrilled to see!
I'm almost done with my first painting- this is Daisy, a regular customer at my farmer's market....I think it's perfect for April!

I have two basic rules; after I've drawn in my "map, I always start with the background bc it's the hardest part, and I always do my underpaintig with the shadows first

getting there......

Annnnd almost done!

I'm hoping to finish Dotty Daisy by the end of this week- fingers crossed!
Stephanie

Peach Cobbler with Pearson's Georgia Peaches and finished with my Peach-Amaretto Jam!

Makes 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 4 cups fresh Pearson's Peaches
• 1 cup sugar, plus more for (optional) sprinkling
• 1 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• Pinch fine sea salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 4oz jar Dragonfly Design Studios Peach Amaretto Jam, warmed to drizzly goodness

Directions: 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the butter in a large (10- to 12-inch) cast-iron skillet (may substitute a large ovenproof baking dish) and place in the oven so the butter melts; this should take 5 to 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the fruit in a large mixing bowl. Use a potato masher to mash the fruit just enough so that it releases some of its juices. If the fruit is tart, sprinkle a little sugar on top.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate medium bowl. Add the cup of sugar, milk and vanilla extract, stirring until well incorporated.

Remove the skillet from the oven. Carefully pour the melted butter from the skillet into the batter, stirring to combine, then pour the batter all at once into the skillet. Add the fruit and juices to the center of the batter. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the batter comes out mostly clean. 

Drizzle with warmed Peach Amaretto jam and serve warm  vanilla ice cream if you like, straight from the skillet.

ENJOY!

Recipe Source: Adapted from Virginia Willis's "Bon Appetit, Y'all" (Ten Speed Press, 2008).

O'Keeffe marks the end to this years traveling art journal journey!

Well here I am, just a bit late with my entry for Gemma's art journal.  Her artist of choice was Georgia O'Keeffe- one of my all time favorites.  I've always loved O'Keeffe's use of color and shape with that touch of surrealism- YUM!
I knew I wanted to do a combination of flowers and bones and I've always been inspired by her white on white on white paintings, so I decided to do a triptych spread with the outside a collaged nod to her bones and flowers series opening to a double duo of poppies.

For the cover entry, I took advantage of having a blank canvas to play with (the artists that went before me did the front and inside covers) and being the last, I could be selfish and take over the whole cover (insert evil grin here ;-)) so I did and had a BLAST doing an O'Keeffe-ish landscape with another floating skull and flower.

What a perfect way to end this year's art journey with one of my favorite artists!
Have a blessed day!
xxoo
Stephanie

Modigliani meets Kahlo!

Here I am again to walk you through my journal entry for the month of July.  This month, I had the pleasure of working in Priti Lisa's book, and her artist of choice was Modigliani.  I decided that I wanted to do a piece honoring his style and giving a nod to one of Lisa's other favorites; Frida Kahlo....and off I went!
First I did my addition to her back cover- I don't know why, but this is often the hardest part of each journal for me and I find myself procrastinating over doing it- so I've started making myself-work on that first!

I love his figure paintings, and as I was playing around with it, I noticed that the lines of her body worked well with a rendering of his signature- so, WHEW, my entry for the cover was planned, painted and executed!  

Next, Gemma and then Maggie will add to this cover to complete it before it makes it way home to Lisa!

I designed my spread for Lisa to be a triptych with a Modigliani inspired landscape 

framing Frida's face- I must admit to becoming a bit hooked on village scenes....here it is:

And here is my Frida a la Modigliani- had SO much fun doing this and of COURSE I had to include some words......just because I love doing them so much!

 

Each month, I've struggled and dug deep to come up with a design for each of these artists we've chosen.  And each month, the artists have seemed deceptively easy and simple to emulate their styles, until I've dipped my toes in and found that NO, it's not simple or easy by any means.  But it HAS made me grow and grow and GROW!  I am SO grateful for my little group of artist friends- I hope we continue this inspiring exchange of art for many years to come!

xxoo

Stephanie