longwood gardens

All Doom and Bloom

We’re enduring a pretty insane period for the human family right now. From the daily (hourly? second by second?) firehose of media-supplied horrors to the interminable wait and weight of our collective house arrest, these days can test even the most resilient and positive. It has been quite a while since I’ve done any personal art, so when a friend shared a “challenge” from a local art league to post art or photography of flowers, it made a connection.

Normally, (hah, THAT word) by now in the spring we would have made several visits to Longwood Gardens, but with that being cut off from us I started digging through pics from past visits. I found several to use as references for a series of digital paintings. Did one, pretty decent. Did another and then another. It hit me, that one antidote to all this destruction and division is to create something, and share it. Maybe it won’t cure Covid or societal divisions or quarantine, but it’s better than Netflix.

consider

Somehow the post got lost in the ether(net). So here’s what it was supposed to be–

28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. – Matthew 6:28-29

I admit, I’m prone to being anxious about many things that are out of my control. (Clothing not really being one of those though, as my wife can attest.)

An unplanned Palm Sunday afternoon spent wandering around Longwood Gardens, just considering God’s creation, really is a great antidote to anxiety. Even more so when you consider the Creator.

All things considered, no worries.

almost home

Been a while since I posted any images, but I’ve been traveling a lot (and shooting some). Recently went to Longwood Gardens to see the Nightscape exhibition. We got there early enough to walk in the Meadows just at sunset, which is just an incredible place. I took a bunch with just my iPhone and have been experimenting with some digital tools to get a painterly, expressionist feel.

I like the sense of urgency in this shot but also the security and hope of home being just in sight.

“This hill, though high, I covet to ascend;
The difficulty will not me offend.
For I perceive the way to life lies here.
Come, pluck up, heart; let’s neither faint nor fear.
Better, though difficult, the right way to go,
Than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe.”
― John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress

it’s in the details

We went to Longwood Gardens in Chaddsford, PA yesterday. It’s one of the world’s great botanical gardens, and we’re fortunate to have it close by. We’ve been able to visit in every season, and it is beautiful and different every time. This trip I decided to try to look past the waves of color and get up close and personal. I wanted to work on creating compositions that were almost more like abstract paintings then photos. I haven’t published anything for a while, nice to get back out and shoot some.

in the meadows

We recently took advantage of a beautiful fall day and went to Longwood Gardens. They have a fantastic new area called the meadows that I could have wandered around all day. The textures and subtle colors and the sound of the wind moving across was just mesmerizing. God is an amazing composer.  I’ll probably put up more pics from here after the photo a day challenge is over.

©2014 Scott Sharadin