Daylily - Thank You, Tom!

Daylily - Thank You, Tom!, a photo by linfrye on Flickr.

9" x 12"
Arches 140#CP

When I left for work last week, I knew it would be a busy one as we prepared for the plant sale. But I thought that should I have a chance to paint, I wanted to add a few new colors that were not on my palette. So I went through my paint things and found several bright blues, greens and oranges.

During several evenings this week, I went through some of my flickr favorites and found a most glorious work by my friend, Tom (Foto Bloke)00 www.flickr.com/photos/pax12/6918368951/in/photostream and with the new colors in my hand and inspired by Tom's magnificent work, I painted my interpretation of the daylily! My heartfelt thanks to Tom for granting me permission to use his photograph as a reference! Please stop by his flickr stream for some awesome work!

The idea of a frame came not only from Tom's work, but also from Karlyn Holman (www.karlynholman.com) a fabulous artist whose workshops I have been privileged to attend. I even spent ten days in Italy with her art group -- outstanding!

The plant sale went exceptionally well. The weather was superb -- in the 80s, sunshiney and warm! The music was sensational, the vendors offered some incredible wares, our volunteers did a superb job of public relations and helped all the customers, and the grounds looked out of this world. My assistant and horticulture students raised some beautiful as well as utilitarian plants --- and our greensmen donated trees and shrubs that customers went crazy for. We were blessed with decent sales and a fun, fun time! Everyone is pretty tired -- getting ready for weeks and months planting, growing, planning -- and it has paid off in public relations, a bit more money to continue our landscaping projects, and new folks to enjoy the gardens and our workshops.

Today will be a day of rest for all the hard work, and a day of gratitude for so many blessings.