This one has been hanging around the studio for months! It needed somethin' somethin' and I couldn't seem to wrap it up. So, I took more photos, started a smaller version in watercolor and kept working with the values and the layers of color.

And the pieces of the puzzle finally came together.

'Growing Like a Weed' is about determination and rapid growth. It's about flourishing.

I have also been painting tulips on miniature canvases and I am teaching a Tulip Time workshop this Saturday morning (April 27th, 2013) from 9:30-11:30am.

I think these little cuties will make special Mother's Day gifts (Sorry to spoil the surprise, Mom!) Click on a tulip or send me an e-mail for more information about purchasing a miniature tulip or attending the workshop.

 

Precious

1. Of high cost or worth; valuable.
2. Highly esteemed; cherished.
3. Dear; beloved.                                                        - American Heritage Dictionary
   

                               

I looked at the tree branches outside my window and saw them! BRIGHT GREEN BUDS!
(I did a double take to make sure they were really there.)

At the first real signs of Spring, it hit me, "Whoo...it's been a long winter."

The hardest part of winter for me are the gray overcast days. (I'm writing from Chicagoland.)

Blah. It's like being in neutral - do you stop? do you go?
Gray feels like indecision or a needling anxiety. Motivation starts to run low. A string of gray days can feel like a lingering sadness that you can't seem to shake loose.

But Spring is here! (Did I forget that it was coming?!)

Bright green buds on winter branches -  it's a natural picture of hope.

I've been listening to a podcast about hope, by a man named Kris Vallotton:
Here are some of my notes:

    "Hope is the confident expectation that good is coming and faith is the ability to see the good     that is not yet visible."

    "Hope is the seedbed that faith grows in...Once I lose hope, I stop believing."

    "Hope grabs my soul and tells me something good is going to happen to me."

    "Hope gets me off my couch and onto the front porch so I begin to seek...
    to look with earnest expectation and anticipation."

    "My hope is not in my ability, but in my God and who He is."

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." - Hebrews 10:23

"But I am trusting you, O Lord, saying, 'You are my God! ... So be strong and courageous, all you who put your hope in the Lord!" - Psalm 31:14, 24

Inspired by the desire to be filled.

"My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you." - Psalm 63:5

"I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God." - Ephesians 3:16-19

"I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called--his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance." - Ephesians 1:18

Yeah - like that.