We are drowning in rain here in River City; you always know when Rose Festival is in town because it is invariably dank and wet. But the roses. Oh my heart the roses. They are splendiferous here even in the soggy shade of May. I was feeling blue until I decided to post and visit with you. Now I feel uplifted. So here are a few flowers for you.
We had a mighty windstorm a few nights ago that smacked down my favorite iris but she is blooming her heart out from her smooshed position. I love her sunrise colors, so soft and moody.
My trellis rose that blooms in abundance all summer. All my roses are fragrant. That's the main test for living in my garden. You have to smell seductive.
I love this iris shot because she looks like a dancer with the leaves all posed around her so prettily. Dancing while smooshed. You go girl.
Peace. So colorful when it opens and then fading to a softer shade. We accept her occasional blackspot in the same way we accept the mis-steps of friends; we love them for their other stellar qualities. This I work to balance out with Oprah's good advice to step away from mean people. It's a balance.
Yellow azaleas are fragrant, did you know that? This one smells heavenly. I tiptoe out several times a day to make my rounds of all the fragrant flowers. No one will ever say I didn't smell the roses.
The grass is growing very fast and green in the walnut orchard. A few of these were shot on a sunny day awhile back. The cows and goats can't keep up with the lush meadow across the lane.
The rhubarb is whispering "Rhubarb Crunch" and I am listening. Once a year I eat this rich dessert with ice cream to my heart's content. It is a July 4th tradition although Bossy's Tres Leches Cake has got my attention too. It is my favorite cake and I've never made it myself but her recipe is tempting me.
And so we close the garden tour with a nod to the Pink Rhodies. They are a soothing balm for life's harder moments; they soften us and help us believe in hope.
It's been awhile since I posted journal pages although they get added to every day. Ponderings about every every every thing that falls under my radar. In my journals I am the Queen of Everything and my thoughts are the thoughts that matter.
What power. Ack, this one is rather hideous looking. Well, sorry. Maybe I'll wallpaper over it with some yellow daisies next week. They keep changing even after I "finish" them.
This encaustic painting is 20x24" on a deep stretcher wooden cradle. I've ordered a big supply so I can keep going. One of my favorite comments was that the abstract paintings have less of 'me' in them and I agree. I've always thought of my 'me' paintings as hot and now these abstracts as cool. Unemotional. Impersonal. They just exist as sentinels like the atoms and other mysteries that surround us. Things to make you wonder.And by the way, thank you an extra bunch for your comments this week. For some reason they have moved my heart more than usual; I am so deeply touched that you take time to respond.
Judy, I think so many people read your blog because you are real, a flesh-and-blood human who loves life, people, beauty, food, flowers and many other things. You love making your art, and your enthousiasm bubbles all over your blog.You have doubts and feelings of sadness at times, but you keep going- loving, painting, doing all the things you so clearly love. And that is precisely why I love you, even though we have never met.
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yes yes yes. The roses!! I was just in Portland on this past weekend and on Monday, while a dear friend was taking me on a tour of some wonderful cob buildings he was working on as part of the VBC (villiage building convergence) week, I had to try with all my might not to be too distracted by the gorgeous, bent-over-with-rain roses on the walk. I will be sharing on my blog soon too! :)
ReplyDeleteThe PEACE rose. It has my heart. Daddy always took time to pull me to smell the roses while walking to church every SUnday as a child. We had one such glorious bush in our own yard. THe ONLY plant I loved (I'm not much for mite-infested junipers and the like of 70's suburbia). This rose was grand. It's colors shifting from dark yellow to rose to creamy white as it matured. In it's glory, some were the size of a salad plate! It was a peace rose and now I have one of my own in honor of dad. :) THank you for reminding me.
I just love you!!!
Your blog is loved because people love your work! Any classes planned for Washington?
ReplyDeleteGoodness, the florals are so beautiful, Judy! Art is in our nature and nature is in our art, isn't it? I read your blog because I cannot help myself... I have to check my peeps! If I were there, I would call or come by but I'm not. But know that in my heart, I'm just a step thru the door.
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your flowers have cheered my heart as well and i wasn't even blue (for once! hee, hee). i do not think i have ever seen this magical iris. oh my oh my it is glorious. and yes it does look like she is dancing! love it, love it! have you ever seen/smelled a rose named after the french fashion designer sonia rykiel? it is an old-fashioned rose with more petals than a flower has a right to have and one of the strongest scents i've ever had the pleasure to whoof up my snout. i never see this rose around but it is in my garden and makes me delirious. wonder if i sent you a cutting of it if it would grow. i really think a girl who likes to smell the roses as much as you do needs this rose. give holler if you think it's worth a try. and the abstracts are mag. i feel i've pigged your comments already so i shall stop. but boy howdy your work always brings me much joy, sweet girl. xo-k
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ReplyDeletecome and visit almost every day to your lovely blog, it's like entering a wonderful living room, where the host is this warm compassionate vibrant welcoming woman and you just want to sit and visit and learn and absorb her conversation. I love your art and your words and am so thankful you are willing and able to share them with the random...
ReplyDeleteahhhhhhhhhhh it's so nice to come here and see your world...thank you for sharing so very much!
ReplyDeletexo much love to you judy!
thank you for your beautiful tour of flowers; beautiful, fragile, ethereal, fragrant, your little heaven on earth...i feel happier now. xo
ReplyDeleteAND i'm lovin your non-representational encaustic work - go judy go, go judy go!!!
ReplyDeleteJudy, I love the new encaustic. It may be less personal, but it passes my art test--it makes me glad I'm alive. I don't mean that art has to be happy, happy, just that it moves me in some way. This piece does!
ReplyDeleteAnd,oh, those flowers!
Judy,
ReplyDeleteI haven't visited for awhile...been away from blogland.
What I'm seeing here is energy...SO VERY MUCH ENERGY. You are thinking and creating and photographing and cooking(?) and "dancing while smooshed". I say YOU GO GIRL.
...but I suppose you know this already.....smart cookie that you are.
Roses in the rain, peonies in the rain, rhodies in the rain, are we ready for less rain yet? I am, and I bet you are too.
ReplyDeleteThe same furious wind took down a big cane of Cecile Brunner loaded with blooms, didn't break so we left her to rest against the trunk of the old dead tree, until the storms go their way and then we will lift her again to the top to cascade its disorder of pink blooms and make me smile when I see her.
Just like you do when I come to visit. And Juan is right, your new encaustics are wonderful,cautious, searching, they lack a bit of the exhuberance that is Judy but I love them almost as much as those where you dance with abandonment through
them, wrapped in your incredible sense of color and form.
They are you, another facet of you and they are revealing. As I said,
I like them. Looking forward to our getting together, much love from here flower girl.
Allegra
ANOTHER fabulous encaustic, I really LOVE this series. What beautiful roses you have too. I'm amazed we still have roses in bloom and the weekend is the beginning of winter. Our weather has been so mild, could you please send us a drop of your rain.
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xo
Mmmm, thanks for the tiptoe through the tulips...I can smell the blossoms from here!
ReplyDeletethe abstract paintings have less of 'me' in them
ReplyDeleteMaybe not...maybe the abstract paintings have Pure Judy-ness. Know what I mean? I always think of abstract paintings as visual energy. No distractions, no frills, just a pure energy/feeling.
I am deeply drawn to the tiny circles and larger rings and stripes and rich color. The abstract pieces call out to me and don't feel "cool" at all. They feel wide and OPEN and ripe for my imagination to sink into.
ReplyDeletethe other paintings/encaustics feel like stories being whispered to me, and these I LOVE as well.
the abstracts are like a secret. I've always liked secrets. we bring everything inside of us to the table when we view art don't we? pure visual poetry. I'll have another please!
Wow Judy! Your flowers are beautiful! Thanks for that lovely garden tour. I never knew there was such a thing as a fragrant yellow azalea.
ReplyDeleteI love that you go outside to smell the roses several times a day. Most of my rose petals have floated away but my very first Canna Lily is almost thigh high. It's so exciting!
I like your abstract paintings. I would argue they have more of you than you expect. I think you are translating an unrevealed vocabulary, which is encoded deep within. Eventually, those words and symbols will flesh out, but first they need to collect to form. I like the page, which you are considering wallpapering. It is raw and reminds me of the work of Marlene Dumas. :D
ReplyDeleteThe thing I love most about your photos is the raindrops on the petals.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that you see your abstracts as cool compared with the heat of the "me" pieces. To me the abstracts glow with warmth. Maybe it's the wax, but also the colours. I see you in there, your love of colour and texture. I guess they're not so personal but they're definitely yours.
You had Bossy at rhubarb. Bossy likes to sink her rhubarb in a pie with some strawberries. Siiiigh.
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