Scanner art by Craig Cramer, gardening & more
Garden art, PhotoShopped images, etc.
Judging from his work, I don’t think heaven will look much different from what he saw.
Reminds me that I’ve yet to read Gene Logsdon’s Wyeth people : a portrait of Andrew Wyeth as seen by his friends and neighbors
Master Bedroom
Many thanks for Carol at May Dreams Garden for organizing the bloom day.
Still not happy with winter scans. But may still do a calendar for 2010.
Larger image | supersized
Steve Silk’s post on plume poppies at Gardening Gone Wild made me realize how much I take this great plant for granted. Evidence of that: I had to search high and low on my hard drive to find even one picture, the PhotoShop filtered image above of an allium with the plume poppy foliage in the background.
Echoing Steve, I love the leaves with their cut edges. My main patch is across the living room from my desk, where that foliage is framed in a window and helps block the busy road out front.
On the north side of the house, it’s maybe not as aggressive as it might be in a spot with better sun and soil. I pluck a few stray runners early in the season to keep it in bounds. It’s not the rampant hog some told me it would be when I first planted it. (I like a plant that can hold its own.) But the plumes do rise up about 7 feet.
I’ve got a real hell strip about 2 feet wide between the driveway and house with the worst soil on the place where it tops off at about 4 feet. It has a totally different character there.
If anyone wants a start, stop by.
Hat tip to Matt Mattus for his post about rice field art near the village of Inakadate. Designs are ‘painted’ into fields using rice varieties with different leaf colors. (Here’s what the plants look like up close.)
I was pleased to see one inspired by one of my favorite woodblock prints of Mt. Fuji by Katsushika Hokusai.
More rice field art images here. Or google image search.
[Full disclosure: I work in Cornelly University’s Department of Horticulture.]
If one of your new year’s resolutions is to become more creative and perhaps unleash that artist hidden within, consider:
Introduction to Botanical Illustration
Course starts Jan. 19.
If you’ve ever wanted to become proficient at illustrating what you see in your garden, this 6-week online course will teach you the basics of rendering plants in pencil and ink.
The instructor, my friend and co-worker Marcia Eames Sheavly, is an accomplished artist who also teaches our popular Art of Horticulture course, recently featured by Julie over at The Human Flower Project.
More info about the course. | View the full syllabus.
There’s also an online organic gardening course that starts tomorrow, Jan. 5. You can still register if you hurry.
