White

The garden smells of apple blossom. All of the apple tress have decided to bloom at once this year and where there is usually a stately progression from one tree to the next, this year they are having a orgy and so are the bees. Each tree is humming.

My sister gave me this crab apple years ago from her garden

A profusion of blossoms

My favourite narcissus, with the most divine smell

Folding Paper

For the past year the main preoccupation in the studio has been black and white and shades of gray. I felt there was something missing in my vocabulary about how I used color, and if I worked just in tones and shades of gray, that something would become apparent. I knew color in a certain way and while I can't articulate what I was missing, I knew something was.  While working with charcoal I started to fold the paper, then I realized I didn't need the charcoal, and then I realized I was back to making marquettes, a sculptors preliminary model or sketch. Hmmm, don't think I'm going in that direction again but just in case I took photos and started to play with them on the computer. Which lead me back to color.

Folded paper

White chalk, 

Popsicles

Surprised

A very fine friend gave us a most beautiful bouquet of tulips. Long stemmed, yellow and red parrot tulips, vibrant and extravagant as only tulip nature can be. So of course I took a zillion photos figuring I would use them for the blog, which, of course I am doing, just not in the way I would have thought. [ Good Friday and All About Music ] These vibrant beauties wanted to be seen in all their glory in black and white. Mind you after a couple of days of working with them a bit of color began to creep in. Love when things have their own mind and if I am smart, I follow    

The Beauty of the Leaf

Tulip 9

Tulip 3.a

Tulip 12

Shades of White

I always have loved the paintings of Robert Ryman. There is a postcard of one of his works "Medway" on the shelf beside me as I write this, so I suppose it's not by chance that these images captured my fancy.