Art Appreciation

We have acquired two pieces of art recently, both of which are very meaningful to us. A few weeks ago, during the garden tour, artist Gini Ogle painted in my garden. (Each garden featured one or two painters.) Gini’s first painting was a small one of a tomato. Her second painting was this one:

Anyone who has visited our garden may recognize this as our greenhouse, with the raspberry bushes and the lavender hedge in the foreground. I couldn’t let Gini leave without purchasing this one from her. She took it home after the garden tour to put some finishing touches on it, and dropped it off here last week. I need to get it framed, and then it will go on the wall where I can look at it every day.

And dear Sunnie, who is heading south to warmer climes next week—we will miss her!—painted this one, which I purchased from her at the co-op sale this weekend:

The entrance to Sunnie’s property is from a wooded road. As one walks further back, however, the woods open up onto this pasture looking northeast along the Swan Range. I’ve visited this spot in person. It is quintessential Mountain Brook.

I love the changing light in Montana, everything from the alpenglow on the mountains, to the first blush of dawn coming up over the Swan Range, to the watery sunshine of a January afternoon. Sunnie has a gift for committing all of it to canvas. In this painting, she caught the moment just before the storm moved in that broke the back of this summer’s oppressive heat wave.

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Despite my good intentions to get apples off the Honeycrisp trees, yesterday ended up being a day of rest. I was still wiped out from the sale. (Apples are on the list for today.) I am very happy with how I did at the sale given that it was my first one. I learned a lot, and that was my goal. This sounds strange, but now I feel like I have permission to sew things that I want to sew, even if I have no use for them. The sale gives me an outlet for getting them to good homes. And I seem to have acquired a reputation as the co-op’s apron expert, which reminds me that I also have an apron pattern to get laid out and published.

Also—despite my good intentions not to noodle around with quilt designs until I finish the ones in progress—I’ve managed to come up with two new ones in EQ8. Ooops. I won’t let myself cut them out yet, however.

I am not lacking for things to do. I have my paper piecing and embroidery projects organized next to my chair and can now work on them in the evenings or while watching football. (Go Browns!)

The husband also had a productive weekend. He was out in the woods building slash piles to be burned in a few weeks. Slowly but surely, that area is getting cleaned up. That was a big job.