Vacation Time=Wandering

Wandering in any direction I want to...going places in my mind, in actual fact, in books, online. That is one of the freedoms of a vacation I love the most. So here are some places I have visited in the last few days:

Mari Andrews via NapaArtonF1rst

Mari Andrews, her website is here. Her sculptures , installations and works in paper make me want to go right into the studio and experiment.I found her through sfgirlbybay, a blog we all know and love. 

Nantucket garden
 via 2 or 3 Things I know

I love this blog! She finds the best photographs and has eclectic taste I find exciting. This summer she has done some great posts that just make you feel bathed in it (summer, that is). Just look at this garden! I'd like to be sitting in it with a cappuccino right now.

I've been reading. Books. Five at the moment...here are three of them.

When we were in Quebec City last week we went to the top of the city, the citadel, and looked down on the famous Le Chateau Frontenac.

I've also been in the kitchen a little bit. Making watermelon and feta salad, and baking bread with flour we got at a gristmill that has been in operation since 1752.

P.S. John just made these, so I had to revise the post to include them. Warm and good.

We took friends up to Acadia National Park, and looked at the "porcupines" from on top of Cadillac Mountain.

And we've been sitting in the garden, enjoying it, rather than weeding it!

Next week it will be back to work, but for now, it is so sweet to do as we please. 

Piet Oudolf and the Dutch Wave

Our garden right now.

Looking at other gardens while sitting in our garden!

via allenbecker.gardeningguru

Millennium Park, Lurie Garden, Piet Oudolf, via Chicago Tribune

Our garden right now.

It's been all about gardening lately. I've been absent from this spot because I've been  weeding and watering (just a little), and planting and staking and fretting and learning. Mostly learning. For the past few years we have been buying plants from Andrew Fiori of Campo di Fiori, (website here) at the farmer's market  on Saturday mornings. It was only last week that he mentioned he was a student of Piet Oudolf. We went straight home and started googling. We uncovered a trail that we have been unknowingly following since our days living in downtown Chicago. Oudolf is the father of the "new perennials" movement, or  "Dutch wave", as it is also called. Look at what he has done in gardens all over the world here, on his website and  here in his own garden. Some of his high profile works are the High Line garden in New York City, built in the bed of the old elevated train (video here), (the High Line website did a great slideshow of his work over here), and Millennium Park's Lurie Garden in Chicago. In the nineties Oudolf started to combine formal garden style with meadow garden style; to include many more informal, grassy perennials which would bloom late and add more structure to the garden, especially in winter. I think he must have been the inspiration for the median strip planter gardens we so admired on all the major downtown Chicago streets. They brought a refreshing element of wildness into the city. Tall grasses and unique plants made me feel I was in the country. I now understand the roots of this design. When we moved to Maine our goal was to recreate this grassy, meadowy feel in our back garden. He's written several books,which you can find online. The Telegraph in the UK did this article on the top ten plants of the "Dutch wave". I also found View From Federal Twist, a great gardening blog whose banner features an Oudolf favorite...a funny Dr. Seuss-ish Rudbeckia. I dare to also include a shot or two from our garden!

Fresh

All I want is to be out of doors! Either in the garden or in the meadow. The garden is full of alliums, iris, solomon's seal and peonies about to burst open. The meadow is covered in buttercups and wild iris. Yesterday I watched as a woman came into the meadow and just filled up two gathering baskets with blooms. It was a bold move in a nature preserve but somehow I couldn't blame her too much...they are so gorgeous just now. My dratted camera does not do them justice (maybe the photographer, too). I am in the market for a new one...and I would love advice from any of you who would care to give it. I've done some research and like the Nikons, but have also heard great things about the Leicas and Lumix. Help!

Poppy Play

June is so full of beautiful flowers. I want to capture them, but I just can't seem to make my camera work properly lately. So frustrating. It may be time for a new camera. But in the meantime I get to play with photos to make them a bit more interesting, if not  the way I'd really like them. 

Easter Eggs

photo via Per Agelii

photo via Per Agelii

photo via Per Agelii

photo via Camilla Engman

photo via Camilla Engman

Swedish Sculptor Per Agelii has invited 10 artists to decorate concrete Easter eggs to be installed in the gardens of Tjoloholms Castle in Sweden. I read about this on artist and illustrator Camilla Engman's blog. Then I went over to Per Agelii's blog and found more photos. You can see a list of participating artists at either place. It's a beautiful garden, and a great breath of fresh Spring air and fun...which I'm really in need of at the moment!

Summer is Speeding Along

I thought I would get back to posting more about my time at Haystack, but I kept putting it off because I couldn't put that experience into words. Something happened there that is still evolving. Drawing on my ceramics showed me how deeply drawing is leading me to something new in my work. It's true what they say about going to Haystack...it ruins you for real life! I feel this hunger to draw and paint all the time......which is not my real life. But I am trying to balance things so that I stay connected to making art. Deb and Nanako opened a studio at their home in Arrowsic...Studio Pig and Fish. Deb's furniture and Nanako's jewelry and collages are currently for sale. A website is coming. And....we just ate dinner in the beautiful garden, including tomatoes from a vine Deb grew for us over the winter. Yum.

Busy Days

I'm getting ready to go to haystack for twelve days! I'm taking a hand building ceramics workshop. Something different and out of my comfort zone. I've done a little hand building and I love it, and working with clay seems like an extension of drawing to me. We've been gardening and cooking too. And exploring color and pattern and drawing are always a refreshment.

Drawing in the Garden

Today was so summery I spent hours out in the garden just drawing in sketchbooks. I think the light in these photos captures the feeling of the experience pretty well. I've started to do the drawing project daily sketches in a sketchbook, rather than only on loose sheets of drawing paper, when I feel a bit tired. I always feel more free to experiment when I am using a sketchbook. I know some people feel nervous about sketchbooks, but I feel that I can do anything in them.

The Garden Right Now

This is how the garden looks today. Now that we have had some warm, sunny days we have good bloom. The Calla Lilies are bursting out like crazy. The Dahlias are being chewed on by something, but their color is striking. We have let color sneak into our all white garden, and it's a good move. We have had one nestbox full of Chickadees fledge this summer, and had numerous Hummingbirds. A little chipper lives in the rock wall, and a pair of squirrels entertain us each morning as they chase each other up and down the tree trunks. Cute!