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We traveled to the Texas Hill Country for a workshop this week, during the best wildflower bloom in five years. With flower peepin’, boot scootin’, and wine sippin’ on the menu, we stayed in the historic town of Fredericksburg – so much goodness, and cherry kolaches, too! I’ve shared some glimpses of the workshop and flower tours with you here. These artists tackled tulip fields, hydrangeas, lilacs and some figurative work, including painting a flower girl in a cute hat on canvas. Even with this long color checklist, we found time for a field trip to Wildseed Farms and a tasting at 4.0 Winery. There’s no rest for flower painters when the wildflowers arrive!

We’re heading to Fredericksburg in May!

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A visit to Fredericksburg isn’t complete unless you explore Willow City Loop, a winding lane through ranches and clifftops where the wild poppies and bluebonnets grow amidst cactus and Indian paintbrush. It’s been years since Indian paintbrush has made a comeback (not to be confused with Indian blanket), since Central Texas has been battling a drought for such a long time. The rains over the past year have revived my favorite red flower, which used to cover the fields of the organic farm where I grew up in East Texas.

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I’m excited to be returning in just a few weeks, because one week in Freddy-burg just isn’t enough for the flower chasers of the world! Soon we’ll fill the car with easels and brushes and all the accoutrements of the painter’s life, and head off for another blooming adventure to the birthplace of the wildflower seeding program created by the late Ladybird Johnson, aka “Wildflower Central”. Stay tuned flower friends: I’ll share new images with you from Wildflower Central soon!

Now that I’ve wet your whistle for bloomers, here’s a peek at those wildflowers in all their splendiferous glory! Enjoy!

Texas Hill Country Super Bloom

All images copyright 2019 Nancy Medina Art LLC

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PS: Here’s your first look at Painting Monet’s Garden!

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Coming this summer – Learn more…!

 

We finished filming for my new online class, Painting Monet’s Garden, this week. Are you ready for your new journey workshop? Pack your sun hat, your muse, and your dreams of Monet, Painting Monet’s Garden is coming!

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Get more joy with monthly online classes

Click here for the scoop!

Join me in Flower Mound Studio – Here’s the scoop!

Do you ever have trouble finding inspiration or ideas about what to paint next? In the past, resources like Pinterest really fired up my muse and gave me ideas not only about subjects, but cool techniques, painting surfaces and tools, and important new art supplies I did not yet own which needed to be acquired post-haste because one can never have too many of those! These days, I’ve found that scheduling intentional appointments for flower field trips fills my painting repertoire with great images for years to come. Being one of those lucky business owners whose spouse works with me full time, I have access to my own personal chef/chauffeur/business manager and best friend, all rolled into one. Carlos makes sure I don’t skip those key dates – The Dallas Blooms Festival at the Arboretum; Tulipalooza at Poston Gardens in Waxahachie, Texas; and our annual spring pilgrimage to Fredericksburg, Texas, for wildflower bloom. I’m pleased to report wildflower bloom cooperated fully this year, thanks to a wet spring in the Hill Country, and I’ll be sharing images of the famous Texas bluebonnets with you soon!

It’s super important to pace yourself and train in advance for these career goals. True, I’ve been accused of shopping fanatically early for geraniums at the local nursery. Even the gal behind the register cast a few doubtful looks my way when I insisted the gazillion blossoms I was squeezing into the car surely would not freeze just because it was early March. (I got lucky – no  freeze, and they’re still blooming!) If it’s beginning to sound like I won the flower lottery, you’re quite right. In fact, it’s a dream come true to have a job as an artist, painter, teacher and full-time encourager for the flower friends who have joined me on this journey. When I left corporate, I traded panty hose for pots of pansies and Jimmy Chus for tennis shoes, and never looked back!

Tonight we fill the car with easels and brushes and all the accoutrements of a floral workshop, and head off for another blooming adventure to the birthplace of the wildflower seeding program created by the late Ladybird Johnson, aka “Wildflower Central”. I visit these same gardens and rolling hills covered in Indian paintbrush, poppies and bluebonnets, every year, but always find something new and exciting to reignite my color joy. I’ll share new images with you from Wildflower Central soon, so stay tuned!

Now that I’ve wet your whistle for bloomers, here’s a stroll through the Dallas Arboretum Blooms fest last week, starring the springtime garden queens – tulips – in all their splendiferous glory! Enjoy!

The Dallas Arboretum Blooms Festival

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PS: Here’s your first peek at my new online class, Painting Monet’s Garden!

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Painting Monet’s Garden ~ An Online Journey

 

This week, we shared the first peek at my new online class, Painting Monet’s Garden. I’ve never been more excited to share an online destination with you – with flowers, water gardens, green shutters and trellises loaded with bloomers, what more could our hearts desire? You are invited to spend the summer with me in Monet’s garden. Pack your sun hat, your muse, and your dreams of Monet, Painting Monet’s Garden is coming!

 

Blooming this summer!  Learn more…

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Get more joy with monthly online classes

Click here for the scoop!

Join me in Flower Mound Studio – Here’s the scoop!

If you could choose your dreams, would they be filled with flowers? We’re celebrating that spring feeling here in the studio, my garden is already full of blossoms, but I am hoping for more soon! Peach geraniums, late daffodils, early irises, and violet pansies left over from cooler months are getting reacquainted in pots of fresh soil. I’ve always dreamed about painting, and sometimes find my mind falling into sleepy loops, working on a red poppy again and again while drifting off, puzzling out textures and colors that disappear moments after they’re placed on the canvas. As a child, I rode my bicycle through dreams of a curved earth where the ground was pure, white paper, stretching to the horizon, waiting to be filled with my drawings. I spent years drawing girls in dresses and ballgowns, thinking I was most certainly going to be a fashion designer someday. Fashion wasn’t in my future (unless paint splattered jeans become the rage!), but design and color are still a part of my work as a daily painter.

I don’t know what filled Monet’s dreams, but I suspect they were colored by his paintings and gardens. Monet painted from life, inspired by color and light carefully orchestrated in his gardens. In Giverny, he met with his gardener every day, making sure the water garden surfaces were cleaned, the lilies fed, and an ever changing palette of flowers was mapped out for the coming months. His passion included his gardens. A few years ago my students and I were painting in San Diego and encountered master gardener Juan Flores and his team planting foxgloves and pansies at a cottage on Coronado Island. Juan was kind enough to stop his work and answer our questions about how he created his award winning gardens. Juan said he dreamed every night of his gardens, what he would plant, where he would place colors together, and what unexpected things he could add. Everyone wants roses and delphiniums, he said. I tell them, you must include something exotic, something unexpected. This is what makes the gardens special. Even as his team waited with cut flowers that were due for delivery to the annual flower show, he couldn’t seem to stop talking about the flower gardens he had created, and the ones to come. There is a sense of discovery when you live your life as a creative, and if you’re lucky enough to be someone in love with flowers, spring is the most Heavenly time to dream!

Early bloomers in my garden

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If you could spend an afternoon in Monet’s garden, would you explore the water gardens first, or the pink brick house? Even if you can’t travel there in person, you can join me there this summer. Pack your sun hat, and your dreams of Monet, Painting Monet’s Garden is coming!

 

Here’s a sneak peek at my new online class coming this summer, Painting Monet’s Garden!

 

 

 

Painting Monet’s Garden ~ An Online Journey

The countdown to Monet has begun! Have you dreamed of painting in gardens filled with the light and colors beloved by the impressionist masters? My newest online journey, Painting Monet’s Garden is coming!

Here’s your sneak peek….

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Blooming this summer!  Learn more…

 

Get more joy with monthly online classes

Click here for the scoop!

Join me in Flower Mound Studio – Here’s the scoop!