what we're growing

*warning: picture heavy post**

Each year since we have lived in Rhode Island we have nurtured a garden. Before moving here, we lived in Utah. We rented a basement of a house and had access to some pots in the backyard for whatever we could grow in them. I tried to grow some tomato plants, but they withered away instead of thriving. Looking back I'm certain it was poor soil with a lack of nutrients....that and a lack of really consistent watering. I just didn't have the same time back then, working a lot (I did work at a nursery in the greenhouses! haha!) and being a fairly new newlywed. But still, I had an itch to dig in the soil, get my hands dirty, and watch things grow. When we moved to Rhode Island we still rented an apartment, but this time we were so lucky to have access to an actual plot of land in the back. It was roughly 20 ft x 15 ft., just enough space for a healthy amount of vegetables! I got really excited. that first year I only did some tomatoes and peppers, but each year following we transformed that small plot of land into a magical oasis of homegrown food. I started preserving lots of our harvest! I was making tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, squash pickles, strawberry jam, applesauce (we didn't grow them apples), and drying all sorts of herbs for storage. It was awesome!

When we moved into our new home we immediately located the spot for our next garden. It was the first thing I made Peter do to get the tiller out and carve out the garden plot, even before any housework... I mean, we moved in toward the end of April, there wasn't much time before planting!! Even still our garden didn't get planted out until June, a bit late. But it still yielded a great little bounty for our family. We went back to our old garden and dug up all the strawberry plants to bring over here. I'm hopeful that next year, after two years of moving them around here, they will produce enough strawberries to make a year supply of jam and give away to all the neighbors!! We have so many strawberry plants and more to come next year with all those runners shooting out!

This year our garden is not being as well tended and loved. I have a few children to tend to and water and fertilize :) They are growing like weeds, so that's good! However, even with only half the garden planted and with much fewer plants than normal, I feel our garden is looking well and producing some wonderful food! Here is a little tour!

Lemon Balm and Sage

View of the Garden (only half planted this year!)

We got our first real harvest year of raspberries this year, too! We transplanted all the raspberry plants we could find scattered along our back fence into one large plot next to the compost. After two years of growing and producing meager harvests we finally had a golden year!! Big, beautiful berries!

Tomato plants. I think there are 20 this year?? It's my number one most favorite thing to grow. I just wish I could actually eat enough tomato sandwiches to use them all up! Oh wait, I can... Well, what I don't put on a sandwich we turn into sauce, so it's all used one way or another.

Some lettuce and squash and the herbs just behind.

View of the back patio area from the garden.

Next year we need to grow more cucumbers! I wish I had a whole garden just for these creeping vines. The boys always want to grow pumpkins, cucumbers, and watermelons. With the squash and zucchini on top of that we definitely have enough to fill an entire garden! They take up sooo much space!

That pretty lettuce, which I'm afraid is beginning to bolt...bummer. I don't know if I have the energy to keep reseeding and keeping going with the lettuce crop rotation this year!

Some of the first green tomatoes! Soon these'll be in my kitchen!

Some of the strawberries we got this year after transplanting them all to the rock wall hedge we built this spring! Next year this patch is going to explode!

Some of the garden steps in the rock wall. I love the ajuga ground cover my neighbor gave me from her stash in her yard! It's taking very nicely and filling in beautifully!

Our little garden snail...

Part of the strawberry hedge...

Ahh, the garden plot...

The herb corner. I'm thinking of moving my herbs to a more permanent location outside of the garden, perhaps along the rock wall and walkway... They take up much needed real estate in my garden!

Ruth loves the cool grass in her toes...

And the sand from the sandbox...

We play outside whenever we can! I built this wooden baby gym for Ruth and she loves it, I'm happy to say. We take it in and out with us and it keeps her smiling for a long time.

It was one of the simplest things I've ever made. Even though it isn't perfect, it serves its purpose and makes my baby smile, so that sounds about right to me!

Sandbox play. This is Sam's sand snowman.

Our first two cucumbers. And our first two boys! Oh the things we are growing around here. Food and big souls!

in the park

In The Park, oil, 12 x 14

available

This is one of those paintings that, for some reason, has been quite difficult to photograph. There is a lot of texture and nuanced color (perhaps because the colors are quite bright and saturated in real life!), so getting the picture right has been a bit of a challenge. This is as close as I've been able to get and it still feels flat compared to the real painting. Perhaps I'll try again...

As I was starting out in painting I found it very insightful to hear about other artists' processes. I learned a lot from other artists, hearing about their techniques and color theory, etc... So, now and again I like to share something about my own process. I like to begin with a warm base, then I pencil in with charcoal my basic drawing. My drawings are very loose and simple. I don't draw in any small details, rather I focus on the main ideas and work to get the composition just how I want it. This sometimes changes later as I'm working on the piece, but more and more I find I'm able to stick to my initial drawing. I suppose practice creates greater confidence!

I then go over my pencil/charcoal drawing with a thin wash of burnt umber, cobalt blue pure, and yellow ochre. I like it to be fairly dark, to give depth to the different elements, especially to objects closer to the foreground. Often in the finished painting parts of this darker underpainting/outlining will peek through.

 

While I wait for the thin base coat to dry, once the underpainting/outlining is placed on I start to go for it. I love to paint wet in wet, so I like to work fast. This usually means I try to carve out as much time as possible to work on a piece, especially if it is a large painting. Obviously I am not able to complete an entire large painting in one session, but I like to get whole ideas into the painting before pausing.

I begin to lay down color. I often start at the horizon, working my way up and down from there. I work around objects in the foreground, leaving them to detail later on. I think in blocks of color, trying to get the tones right. Then, as I build up different layers of colors I begin to really work on the edges between objects, like the horizon or the space between sky and clouds, or the edges of the trees, the blending from foreground to background in the landscape, etc... this is my favorite part of painting and it feels like it's where the magic happens. Each painting is unique and sometimes there is just one particular brush stroke that creates just the right feeling in a painting. In the end it seems I usually know when it's finished, but sometimes that decision takes a while. If I leave it for the next day I can usually decide by then if it is really completed... This one is finished now!

Finished painting alongside a small color study for it!

 

Detail

utah landscape series

Toward Springville, oil, 6.25 x 9

available

When we were out in Utah to adopt our sweet little Ruth, I tried to fill up my camera's memory with photographs. Now, looking back at them, I see that I did fill up my camera's memory, but mostly with pictures of our children and especially one beautiful little girl in particular! But, I do have a healthy amount of images to work with for a new series of Utah landscape paintings. 

Peter's grandparents have a house in Springville, a small town in the foothills of the Wasatch Mountain Range, where we stayed while there. In there basement was a stack of old wooden plaques, just like the ones I often use for my paintings. I thought, I ought to take these home and do a series of Utah landscapes on them! And, so it begins! I had ample opportunities to snap pictures of the wide open landscape from the car as we drove all over Utah. We took several drives up into the nearby canyons. I have quite a few pictures of rainy and misty weather, as well. Plus, a few pictures of some spectacular white clouds against a backdrop of bright blue sky taken on the day we were able to bring Ruth home with us from the hospital! This is my first painting in the series and I hope to paint up the rest of those panels in the next few weeks, so keep your eyes open for these! I will post them on my website and in my Etsy shop as they become available. Plus, if you want to follow me on Facebook, I always post when I have new work to show. Enjoy!

Detail

hush

Hush, 14 x 22, oil

available

I was looking at a painting hanging in our hallway, one I'd painted earlier this year. I had never been completely satisfied with it, but it hung there for me to walk by and inspect multiple times each day. Yesterday I pulled it off the shelf, removed it from my website, and set it up on my easel again. I didn't change the basic composition, besides painting out a sailboat that had been in the original. I wanted more texture, more mood, greater contrast, more movement. I am happy with this version of the painting and it's back up on my wall awaiting a new home when someone stumbles upon it! I wish a photograph could do this painting justice. Much of my work is becoming increasingly more textured and layered, which makes photographing with any accuracy a true challenge! But, for what you can sense from this piece, I hope you enjoy it!

Detail