Wisconsin Watercolor Way: Week of May 11, 1998

"The function of the artist is to stay in touch with the othertruth, the truth of the less distorted, nonverbal, non rationalized partof our consciousness, the part of us that still sees some vital importancein trees and animals and water and fish." (Sandra Bloom, "CreatingSanctuary")

I relate to this quote in that for the last several months I've been outworking on my land instead of painting. This primrose is one of the lastpaintings I made before I went on vacation.

Primrose, 16" x 20" Watercolor, $125 (USA dollars)plus shipping

The front part of the property has been graded and had topsoil spread.Several weeks ago I began to rake it and then plant a mix of prairie grassand flower seed. As I chose to do this entirely by hand, it took about aweek. After a couple of rains the front berm is now covered by a fuzz ofgreen.

Since I'm going to have a hard time distinguishing all of the tiny plants--particularlythe grasses--from each other, I bought one each, samples, of many of theplants I seeded. Now the samples are planted out with accompanying labels--soI can identify my new seedlings.

I've also planted a number of water plants in and around the pond--includingmy first water lilies. And of course I put in a vegetable garden and someold fashioned roses and a few wetland trees around a small drainage waterway.
In other words I've been playing hooky in a big way from both painting andgallery . Today (May 16), after my long vacation, I did a watercolor ofthese Lilies of the Valley and also began a painting of Prairie Smoke, aflower I've not painted before.

Lilies of the Valley, 16" x 20" Watercolor, $125 (USAdollars) plus shipping

This summer my gallery hours, painting schedule, and web page outputwill be erratic. As someone put it I "have a date with spring...andsummer."

email me if you wish to purchase my artwork.
jjmck@mhtc.net
I can be reached by mail at:
Jennifer Sharp
207 Commerce St.
Mineral Point, WI 53565
USA
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Last modified May 16, 1998 by Jennifer Sharp