You may think this is a very busy painting, and you'd be right, it is... but it's a very very busy bit of garden. I fit in the sweetpeas, roses, daisies, lavenders, spinach (yes!), alstroemeria, ivy, agapanthus and icanthus, but couldn't squeeze in the plumbago, lemon drops, anenomes and fuschias and one or two more things I can't think of... I am not a very good gardener, but someone who lived in this house in years gone by certainly was. She, or he, planted a structure of shrubs and perennials and herbs that come up and blossom year after year, season in and season out, with little need for any (not very green-fingered) ministrations from me. For years after we moved into this house I was too insecure to change anything at all, from what looked like sheer expertise - except for alongside the little front garden path - I started sticking in a couple of bulbs, and that cutting, and a slip of this and a friend's gift of that, and suddenly, this spring, I looked at it, and thought - this is my bit of garden! Messy and haphazard and overplanted as it is, it is no more the intimidating bygone garden guru's garden path - it feels like home.
Posts
11 comments:
Oh this is beautiful! What spring joy for you - wish I could see it in person. But your delightful w/c helps my brain to imagine it and the scent too - must be heavenly! Lovely that you finally feel like its YOUR garden. (I think Tom Kitten may come walking down the path in his Sunday best!)
I think it's gorgeous. Love the lush abundance of it... and the inviting pathway. Beautiful painting!
It is exquisite. And it feels like home, as I know that path so well. It always does look beautiful, and is obviously a real riot now in the Spring. Must be a green thumb there too. My slips and bits don't generally thrive at all. They say gardeners enjoy old age, because they have each new season to look forward to.
Haven't spotted Tom, Gillian, but Kenzo Cat rolls around there a lot - especially if I'm gardening - got to be right under my nose!
Thanks Teresa - I like how a painting doesn't show the weeds, the aphids and the straggly bits;-)
It is a riot, Vivienne - suddenly all the little bits are thriving - I think plants do, generally, in Joburg - one of the compensations of living here! Thank goodness for gardens, seasons and paint...
I think it's beautiful too! There is a lot going on--all of it interesting!--but the way you've structured the space keeps it from being "busy." Oh how I wish some good gardener had lived in my house before me!!
Lovely sketch Cathy - you get a sense of the garden right away. It seems like a very happy place to be....
What abundance...
Enjoy your fresh use of color!
I love this painting and your garden! I wish my house came planted so nicely!
This is positively exquisite. You are quite a painter, Cathy.
Oh, a lovely, free painting and this is my kind of garden. I used to have just such a one- over-planted some might say- but I loved it- color, texture, and even better- it kept the weeds down!!! I miss it immensely and your painting brings it back to me for a moment. Thanks.
Post a Comment