Laurelines

Normandy gardens, mostly

We went to see gardens and see them we did. Clos du Coudray, Jardins Agapanthe, Jardin Plume and Bois des Moutiers were among my favorites. I have lots more sketches which I hate to eke out this way, but, ah well, there we are, subject to time and life constraints, all of us. Happy first day of summer! I love how my Maruman accordion sketchbooks, by virtue of their format, create a storyline out of loosely-associated images. You get unexpected correspondences, such as the shape of the eyes in the train woman and the Rodin bust here, and the arabesques of train curtain and bas-relief at Rouen Cathedral.

Normandy and Paris, Part 2

First week back, I had to go visit my mother (who continues to defy the dire prognosis of last fall and is tiny, witty, beautiful and very much alive) and then my wonderful husband had a tri-part surgery on his foot---meaning he has to sit down, lie down, or hobble on crutches for six weeks.

So, it's a one-woman show around here these days.

But, enough about me and mine. Where are the sketches??

Here are a few. More to come, bien sûr.

< I loved this bust study by Rodin. I've been reading about his drawings and watercolors ---none of which the Rodin Museum in Paris HAS, by the way!! Big disappointment. But when I saw this bust made of plaster, wax, newspaper, and clay I was thrilled---he's done this the way he did his drawings---pasting, pastiching, reworking lines, being as free as a bird. This figure really spoke to me.

Sketches from Normandy and Paris

Well, it WAS even better than I thought it would be, this trip. And it's the last for a good long time, so it's nice to have such fond memories. Here are some sketches from the trip, but I made LOTS and I used all sorts of materials to do so. Except for the large sketch of Jardin Agapanthe, these are from my small Maruman accordion sketchbook, pictured on the bed in the last post.   Finally, here is a sketch made in Paris, during an afternoon with Flickr buddy, wonderful artist and great guy Rick Tulka. I love it when I get a chance to meet in person one of the loose group of about 100 sketchers and artists from all over the world who, like me, have been blogging or Flickring for years. You can tell a lot about a person by looking at her/his artwork and reading his/her stories and comments. And, without exception, those I've met have been the real thing----warm, talented, good people. Rick is all that and more.

My big garden redo!

Verbosity alert! This won't make sense if you don't read the whole thing, though, so do try and soldier on ;D.

Last November, I decided I had to do something about my garden. In 2007, my daughter Kate was married in the garden and we made it all flowery and weddingy and it really did look wonderful.

 

But in the past three years, it lost definition and became sort of blowsy and disconnected. It definitely wasn't 'me.' 

What to do? I sought and found inspiration from garden magazines and books, from some French garden designers who figured out a way to use elements from formal French gardens in a new way, a more casual and fun way.  I decided to try that approach myself.

I pared and pared and pared down. I turned my two parterres into grids, planted with an emphasis on form, foliage, and texture. 

Redesigned garden, newly installed, April 2010:

I removed lots of flowering things from my borders and added pyramidal, round, and columnar boxwoods. Between these, I replanted some of my old phlox, irises, roses, peonies and added alliums and other stuff---vertical, exuberant things that would play off against the evergreen topiaries. I designed a new path to replace the old mulch one, too.

Redone garden, May 2010:

So, I'm back again with a new garden. There's lots of brown dirt out there, but the garden will mature, the brown dirt will recede into the past soon enough. 

Most wonderful of all, I'm leaving Sunday to make a pilgrimage to some gardens in Normandy, those that inspired me to redo my own garden. I'm going to sketch and sketch and take it all in and be more and more inspired, so come back and be inspired (I hope), too! See you soon!

Cars, gardens, and a trip to Turkey!

Yes, on the road every week and getting my redone gardens off to a good start---this is how things go right now.

But there's Turkey this week, too! Off to Istanbul, Bodrum, Ephesus for a few days, leaving Wednesday.  Back the next Thursday.

Sketches from Turkey!! Soon! 

Until then, some more quick in-the-car sketches, part of my ongoing project this year to sketch FAST, so that I can do it more deftly when I want to. I won't always want to, of course! There's a lot to be said for slow and careful, too.

Here today, there tomorrow.

Today,  my garden:

Tomorrow, Iceland:

Thanks to Trey Ratcliffe for the use of this exquisite photo.

I had not shown pictures of my garden in a while, so thought I'd give a little update on that front before I leave tomorrow for other, more exotic pastures for a few days. Here, we have not (yet) suffered from the extreme drought we experienced the last year and a half, though we are still in need of rain.  In Iceland, I'm going to make lots of sketches for later paintings and I'm going to take lots of photos with my new digital SLR, the Canon Rebel XSi. I will be sharing some of these from Iceland, if all goes well technically.  See you soon!