Another watercolor at week 27 for „One Year – One Island“
I can’t get enough of spring – I think most of us feel the same by all the bright green of the budding trees, the abundance of flowers, the birds singing and chirping, and in the evenings the mosquitoes dancing in the backlight. I love spring more than any other time of year. It’s so positive, so promising. Here on our island, there’s an annual festival to kick off the season. It’s called „Öland Spirar“, which roughly translates as „Öland Blooms“. For this festival, many private gardens that are so beautiful (or at least whose owners are proud enough of their gardens) open their doors to inspire the public. One of these gardens belongs to Anna in Husvalla. In the summer, she hosts the Öland’s Chamber Music Festival, which my husband and I have attended for the past two years. Anna prioritizes gardenplants that are visited by pollinating insects – in other words, there’s abundance of flowers. I came up with the idea of painting her garden two days earlier. It was my husband’s birthday. We took the day off and drove to Himmelsberga to see an art exhibition. On the way home, we talked in the car about my next painting motifs and how a picture of blossoming flowers would best represent Öland at the moment. We were just outside Föra, and I remembered Anna’s garden (Husvalla is just beyond Föra). We decided to drive past there and peek through the fence to see if it would be worth it. The house blocked the view of the entire garden, but what little I could see was breathtaking.
The next day, I called Anna and asked if I could come the next morning to paint her garden. She was neither positive nor negative, rather reserved. Should I be ashamed if I admit that I was a little bit stubborn and persuaded her? The next day, I arrived at 10:30, and the garden was stunningly beautiful – even if – as Anna told me when I arrived – she had cut all the red tulips just some days before. “Too much red – they took over”, she said. I had everything I needed to make no trouble: a pot of tea, two sandwiches, a few biscuits, enough water for my work, a chair, and a side table. I sat in the shade of a beautiful limestone building because that’s where I had the best view of the flowering beds.
Anna had her daughter and two grandchildren there, and I tried to make myself invisible as best I could, as I had the impression that they felt somehow disturbed. And they quite ignored me, even her dog showed no interest in me. Or was I interpreting that because, after Annas initial reluctance, I was now expecting it? I am not that vain that I believe everybody should be thrilled of my paintings, but usually people like it when someone show interest in painting their belongings. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the wonderful surroundings and painted until 3:00 p.m. As I could still see all the empty tulip stems, I decided to put them back into my painting.
Meanwhile I was so cold that I had to stop. The warming sun hadn’t reached me the entire day, and—something I hadn’t realized when choosing my perspective—I was sitting in the middle of a gust of wind. My fingers were icy, even though it was pleasant in the sun. I stopped, packed my stuff in silence and drove to my fellow artist Anne Ø. Andersson. I had offered to deliver the signposts and flag for our upcoming art tour, as her house was on my route, and we could chat a bit. Anne invited me for „fika“ (one of the most important words to know in Swedish! ;)) and I stayed for about an hour. … and then I spontaneously painted a second picture, but I’ll tell you about that in the next post. 😉
So here is the finished picture of Annas beautiful garden – I hope you like it:
And Anna, if you should read this somehow: Please forgive me. I understand that you probably just had enough of enthusiastic gardenlovers after all the visits at the Öland Blooms Festival. See you at the Chamber Music Festival…
