Light Catcher

In the back corner of my garden there lives an old apple tree. There isn’t much left of it and a wet snow this winter took down another big section of it. Still, I love that tree and enjoy the woodpeckers  who like to visit it now.  One afternoon last summer I came across this

Into the Light

To purchase my original paintings, please visit my website here. Clearing out my Dad’s house in preparation for selling it means being reunited with some of the paintings I did for him over the years. ( A couple of them got snapped up by my siblings!  Yay!)  I always sort of liked this one, even

Gardens and Art

Big Clay Pot Click here to visit my website As I’ve mentioned you some of you, my dad passed away about a month ago.  On Father’s Day, in fact.  He was a wonderful man who lived an enormous, interesting life, from serveying mountain peaks in Alaska to helping design hydro-electric plants in Bangladesh.  Wherever he

Journeying

This morning I thought I’d share this painting I did a few years ago of my children.  They are sitting on the Dune Trail, gently enjoying a small snake that has come across their path.  We are lucky to live in a place where one  needn’t  fear the snakes. I feel almost a mystical tie

Leading a Volunteer Workday

The Botanists http://www.melissabluefineart.com Yesterday I had the good fortune to help lead a volunteer workday at a nearby nature preserve.  Almond Marsh is blessed with a large natural marsh and a nice quality upland savanna.  It is also blessed with a wet area accidentally created when a road was constructed. A low area filled with

A Beastie!

“Making Her Way”   http://www.melissabluefineartandgardendesign.com   When I was a kid my family lived on a small lake.  The station for the train that took my dad into Chicago for work was at the far corner of that little lake. He could walk the half mile down our road, or he could have me paddle

Field of Dreams

A funny thing happened with this painting.  After studying it for a bit, my mind got busy.  Theory and bad things like that.  This is what happened: I thought that by making the color dots larger in the foreground and adding more definite brushstrokes, it would only enhance the jewel-like look I was going for.

Winter Light

http://www.melissabluefineartandgardendesign.com   Now, you may not be wanting to see more snow this morning, but I just finished this painting and was eager to share it with you.  I hate the stuff, myself, except, isn’t it pretty?  Also, I appreciate it for its vital role in the health of the ecosystems here.  This particular ecosystem,

Springful Thinking

Every now and then I like to do a garden painting to give another side of my nature a bit of exercise.  This is based on some photos I took of my garden last spring.  This year spring may take awhile to come out from under all the ice, but I do hear birds singing…

Treeline, Rollins Savanna

Here is a painting I completed last fall.  As you know, I’m very partial to this former farm which has been saved from development.  Just think~it could have been acres of beige mcmansions and pavement. I’ve been reading that more and more people are becoming disenchanted with the suburb, and are returning to the city.