"I've been doing a lot of abstract painting lately..."

You hear all the time about writers who face writer’s block. I’ve never heard of “artist’s block,” but sometimes life just gets in the way of sketching and painting, or so it seems to me. This time of year, the garden calls out to me. All that color and new growth is inspiring and exhausting at the same time: weeding, mulching, rearranging plants, planning for foot paths, and picking annuals to plant among the perennials. Gardens don't just happen; they evolve over time, and there are always new ideas to try. After the work is all done, and the delicate flowers emerge, it's all worth it, though. Painting will come soon enough, and all that color will inspire.

“Take thy plastic spade,
It is thy pencil; take thy seed, thy plants,
They are thy colors.”

(-William Mason, The English Garden, 1782)