Joy in the Garden, Floral Delights

The garden, while outside the French doors of my Tampa studio, truly resides in my heart. Circling around a baroque urn supporting rams’ heads and swags are 100-year old limestone statues of shepherds, shepherdesses, and mythological figures in rococo dress. The warm seasons of Florida, the “land of flowers,” bring a succession of brilliant colors, fragrances and delight. They are always “in the wings” of the Stilton theater.

Flowers:  When working as a set designer at Eisenhower College, the director told me that the only things that must be real on the stage are flowers. It is from the studio garden that the colors flow onto my canvases and watercolor paper pieces. Lilacs blooming along the south side of Notre Dame or along a lake in Sweden can “color” a series of paintings in blue-purple tints. But sometimes the flower itself becomes the focus. Only color and line then speak eloquently.