MISSING LUPINUS TEXENSIS IN NEW ENGLAND

What is the point of painting if one is not to indulge one's imagination from time to time, I ask.  

The mad race commences in mid March.  Well...as much as a race can be when accompanied by a cane, not age but a missing right ACL, to the snow covered bulb garden anxiously awaiting the oh so short-lived appearance of the "Purple Gem" Dutch Iris Reticulata, a native of the Caucasus Mountains.  It produces a top heavy bloom that is larger than the plant stem.  Of over 1000 bulbs I planted over a decade ago, this teenie "good news early bird" can make many a winter weary heart sing!  

So bravely and in such a cheeky manner, pushing and straining its tiny 4 - 6" stature through the snow at or around Saint Patrick's Day, often beating the neighboring Early Snow Glories (chionodoxa forbesii) and Early Snow Drops (galanthus woronowii) and even before The Giant Crocus, followed by the perky Blue Grape Hyacinth (muscari armeniacum).  Aaaah those sweet little muscari...that when I squint my eyes...I pretend they are teenie tiny Lupinus Texensis... my beloved Texas bluebonnets!

Doting over a half dozen Phalaenopsis indoors during the winter, tides one over until the Iris Reticulata arrives in the March New England garden, followed by a multitude of other colorful bulbs, including the sea of sweet Lilly of the Valley and later the oh so expressive Arum Italicum.  Dicentra dancing in the breeze, the Vinca Minor under the Azaleas and Anemones everywhere.  Wood Hyacinths too and here come five Peonies with all those pesky ants, followed by a multitude of still more colorful lilles.  Still...every spring, after all these years...my heart yearns for the sight of Texas bluebonnets!

Waving my brushes, as if Merlin, wishing millions of bluebonnets to appear, to march no matter how unlikely to my doorstep...

Flowers: They have been seen in paintings and jewelry as symbols since humans began to express themselves.  That is after the documenting of game on cave walls became the passing rave and yesterday's fad.   Then womanhood began to decorate!   You but have to search: flower.  Flowers everywhere!  Here at Trocadero 3683 items will appear.  The Victorians and their language of flowers...books have been written on the subject.  Button collectors can tell you about them too.

Now to the generic iris - not my sweet reticulata- the artist Philip Hermojenes Calderon, an English painter of French birth, painted an iris in his 1856 and third work Broken Vows as he patterned the painting symbolic styles of the Preraphaelite artists.  An ancient belief is that the iris delivers a warning to be marked, as it was named for the messenger of Olympus.  It also punctuates images of hushed grief for girls led into the hereafter.  It is also the Fleur - de - Lis emblem of France.  As time goes on, other meanings may be attached to it.

Oh those orchids...who but Heade could paint an orchid?  Remember the Antiques Road Show episode of the lady who found one in her Boston area home?  A family member of mine knew her to be quite happy with that find!  Orchids are everywhere these days, in pots and on canvas.  Painting orchids my way, has been a joy as well.

No sense in competing with, nor trying to imitate Mother Nature...enter the camera...when I can paint it just the way I like it.

All images design concept content text are original and solely owned by Mimi Dee and may not be reproduced in any form.  May 2013