Christmas Lights

Bllue lights at the Denver Botanic Gardens Blossoms of Light Display.  Magical feeling under those blue lights.

Christmas Greetings

It's that time of year!  We made ornaments with nail polish, above is a cluster of them - made more by the kaleidoscope effect.  Have a good year in 2015 everyone!

Ribbon Tree

This Ribbon Tree was decorated in the yard of the chapel in Talquepaque in Sedona, AZ.  I liked the way the loops of ribbon became a pattern in the mandala.

Teasel snowflake

We are having no snow and temps in the 50's this week. My snowflake is a dried seed head of teasel, so doesn't require any snow!  

Thanksgiving?

Had password issues so am belatedly adding a thanksgiving post.  Ours was good.

Hope all of you had a good one as well and are now in the midst of Christmas preparations.  

Butterfly on Orange

I was sitting by a pot of flowers when a butterfly came down for a drink. I watched for a while and took some pictures, in Sedona where it was shirt sleeve weather a couple weeks ago. 

Cold Day

Thought I would send a boquet of flowers on this cold 6 degree day!

Sun is out so it will warm a bit.

Aspen

Another star shape in the middle.  It is fall in the Rockies and the aspen have turned.  There were a lot of red/orange colors this year. 

Cactus Tuna

Cactus tuna (the spent flower pods) add such a beautiful color difference to the green cactus they are almost as colorful as the flowers themselves.  These were in Sedona,AZ.  I also like the star pattern in this mandala. Enjoy!

Sliver Glass

The silver glass is so reflective that you almost don’t see where it is. I like the reflections in the glass highlighted by the purple flowers, the spikeness in the middle is the tips of a spruce bough that was in the edge of the picture. Just liked the different textures in this piece.

Striped Cana

The leaves are more important than the flowers in the case of this picture. Stripes make additional patterns along with the kaliedoscope rotations.

Cabbage Colors

Liked the pastel blues and greens in these cabbage leaves.

Square Water Lily tile

Every so often I like to try the 'tile' format.  This is a reflection but its hard to tell.  The thin 6 sided shape in the middle is the water surface with lily pads but it doesn't read well as a reflection. And the pattern comes out as a circle more than a square. Try again - still interesting. 

Water Lily Glow

Loved the glow from taking a picture of the lily from the back side - the lily was leaning over in the water and the morning sun was illuminating it.

Purple Pastel Lily

The pastel quality of this lily made the picture, along with the strong crossing of the water lily stems in the middle.

Water lily star

The pentagon shape/star that formed in the center, sets off the mandala, with the half opened water lily bud anchoring the corners.  There was movement in the water so no perfect reflection but I like the shimmer.  

Purple Water Lily

More purple this time a water lily.  Thought this looked a little bit like an art deco print. In the last couple of weeks the water lilies at the Denver Botanic Gardens have all come out.   A beautiful display, with many picture opportunities. 

Purple Glass Boat

The boat with Dale Chihuly's blue and purple glass creations in the Japanese Garden at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

Purple Glass

There was a boat filled with purple and blue glass floating on the pond in the Japanese Garden at DBG.  Wonderful colors that made this jewel like mandela.

Fun Colors

Liked the fun colors in this glass display at the gardens, and the day lilies were out too.

Chihuly will be at the Gardens thru November so there is still plenty of time to see him. 

Glass Pods

There are many glass objects in the gardens which are pods of various colors.  I liked the translucent earth tones of the ones in this mandala, highlighted by the red/pink flowered stalks and the squiggle of yellow glass.  DBG is still full of crowds seeing the Chihuly exhibit, this trip down for me was more about the new flowers than the glass since, I've been down 5 times now! The lotus were blooming. The glass sculptures in the gardens are still beautiful.

Blue Glass

This is Dale Chihuly’s entry piece at the Denver Botanic Gardens. We need some blue coolness here today and for the rest of the week, as it’s going to be in the 90′s all week. Whew! Can someone humm the “Frozen” song?

Red, Blue, Green, Yellow glass

Another of Dale Chihuly glass art pieces, this one called 'Ikebana'. I liked the curvilinear flow that formed in the mandala.

Summer Snowflake

Chihuly glass against a red walled waterfall at the Denver Botanic Gardens, my manipulation made it look like a snowflake in summer. It's in the 90's today.

Yellow, Green, Purple Glass

These are the same purple glass spears from a different angle and a different piece of glass at the center. Still from the Chihuly exhibit at the Denver Botanic Gardens. This one has a more airy feeling than the previous mandala.

Chihuly at the gardens

There are wonderful glass pieces at the Denver Botanic Gardens by Dale Chihuly - they will be there all summer. Go see them!

Lily

My lilies are getting ready to bloom this one is from last year. I was juried into the 68th Annual Gilpin Arts Show in Central City, which runs from June 7 to August 10th, 2014. If you want a quick drive to the mountains come see the show, at the Washington Hall Gallery, 117 Eureka St, Central City, CO - right across from the Opera House. Look them up online at www.gilpinarts.org

Glorious Poppies

My poppies have started blooming again. They are a big flower about 4/5 inches across and such a concentrated color of orange. I looked down my front sidewalk and thought someone had stuck a orange sprinkler flag there – but no it was my first poppy! They even survived the hail we had last Tuesday, it was just buds then. I like the star that forms at the center of this mandala.

Garden Fairies quote

Back to my circles, but before totally leaving the subject here's a Fairy quote inside the apple blossoms that were so pretty this spring.

Snow is melting and warmer weather is in the wings!  3 cheers!

Another Temporary fairy garden

Fairy Henge with a small star fish, sheet moss over the dirt holding the stones up and the Scarlet Pimpernel Fairy who was sitting.  Since there were no plants except the small one in back - there was nothing binding the earth together.  So when it slipped off the stair in my window well greenhouse - that was the end of this garden.  I think the fun of creating it is the best part anyway so I will try something different with the stones next (after our snow melts).  

Temporary Fairy garden

A reminder Fairy Gardens are temporary constructions. In this basket garden I discovered the Flower Fairies of Cicely Mary Barker have been translated into 3-D versions about 3 to 5 inches tall.  Above is Buttercup, with a real pansy, a log with glass butterfly and a blue bird.  I put the garden out under the apple tree only to discover the next day that the squirrels like them too.  For some reason the little log the butterfly was on disappeared - the tail of the bird was bitten off and I had attempted to start a couple avocado seeds in a nearby pot, only to discover the squirrels took bites out of them as well.  Fortunately they don't like plastic as the buttercup fairy is still intact.

Flower Fairies

As a departure from my Mandalas, I have been making fairy gardens.  This is a May pole in a teacup, with two tiny fairies and a pansy, appropriate for the beginning days of May!  I put a thimble on top.  More fairy gardens will follow in the next couple of posts, then I will return to my flower mandalas.  Enjoy! I have been having fun trying to find just the right accents for these tiny gardens.

butterfly on pink

Liked the side view of the butterfly and the bright pink flower it was sitting on with the background out of focus.  We have been having really strong winds over the past couple of days and colder temperatures.  (Grateful the winds were not tornado strength! as others have had) I'll be glad for warmer days and no wind!

hidden butterfly

Sometimes it's hard to tell where the butterfly is as above, but it makes for interesting patterns.

colorful butterfly

Repeated patterns all over with the bright yellow, red and black. Was even glad to get the butterfly's antenna. 

Monarch Butterfly

Monarch's are the queen of butterflies with such a migration story. You have to admire them for their long flight.  There is a novel by Mary Alice Monroe called "The Butterfly's Daughter"  which has a young woman following the Monarchs to Mexico. 

Butterfly on a cold day

This Butterfly from the Butterfly Pavilion got into moisture condensing on their windows - because it was a cold day outside, just like today.  He did fly off after getting free of the surface tension. When I measured outside today there was about 6 inches of snow in my back yard.  It was melting and turning to slush on the roads, driving was a bit iffy.  We need the moisture - it is just sloppy to get around in when it's snow and it's supposed to be spring - as in April showers bring May flowers!

Adding Color to the B&W Butterfly

Adding color to the Black and White butterfly was easy in this mandala, because the butterfly was sitting on a wonderful purple flower.  I like the patterns and the pop of color.

Butterfly Wings

Just like flowers butterfly wings provide many opportunities for pattern variations.  I liked the yellowish glow in the middle of this black and white butterfly wing.  Color was probably reflected off a flower the butterfly was perched on.

 



Picture of the branch

The branch that is in the previous mandala.  It's suppose to be in the 50s today with no wind!

6-pointed snow star

Well it is snowing and cold here again today, 32.  The wind was whipping by at a good clip this morning, but seems to have let up a little now.  It is hard to fathom as it was 72 yesterday and I was walking the dog.  There are still 2 more days of winter! This picture was from an earlier snow storm that made the trees look like a fairy land.  This is the last in the series of 6 pointed stars.  I will start with butterfly mandalas next. 

colorful cactus

Subtle pastel colors on this columnar cactus intrigued me.  You usually think of cactus as green, so to have this variety of brownish hues, coral, and reds caught my eye and made for a pleasing 6-pointed star.

Black and White 6-pointed star

In my early photo career I worked in a darkroom making black and white exposures, now in Photoshop it's much easier and no chemicals involved.  The photo club I belong to recently opened up digital B&W competition so I submitted this one.  Picture was two dangling glass teardrops  with reflections of the greenhouse support structure - the gray lines are the corrugated greenhouse roof, and the dark stripe was a cross beam of support.  It made for a dramatic 6-pointed star.  And you don't always need color to make things interesting.

Glass Mandala

I liked the colors in this mandala - it's a picture of several colored glass jars, yellow and blue mostly in this picture.  Perhaps because they are complementary colors it is more pleasing to the eye.  I am doing jewelry experimentation on the side and it almost reminds me of a brooch.  I'm going to do a couple more 6 pointed star mandalas then switch to a series on butterflies.

Aloe Bloom

The Desert Botanical Gardens in Tucson had several aloe blooming.  It was much warmer down there - here in Colorado, we are going to get another Polar Vortex round with snow and cold this weekend.  I am grateful we are just on the edges of the cold and it warms up in between.  The Parkview show was very successful for me.  I sold 3 framed pictures, one of the ruffled white amaryllis mandala in previous blog entry.

Ruffled White Amaryllis

I liked the ruffles at the edges of this Mandala. It's a ruffled white Amaryllis from the Botanic Gardens.  I entered this picture in this year's

Parkview Fine Arts Festival

February 20-23!

 Opening reception tonight from 7-9

12444 E Parkview Drive

Aurora, CO 80011

Come by if you can it runs all weekend

a jack in the pulpit type flower

A 6-pointed flower star. I liked this flower and it's shape. It made for an interesting graphic presentation.

Prickly Poppy

Another 6-pointed star - thought I ought to have a white flower to represent the snow and cold we are now suffering through.  This has a bit of a 3 dimensional effect and feels like you could touch this flower (not the stem), a Prickly Poppy blossom with it's delicate papery texture..