{"id":7931,"date":"2021-06-03T15:22:10","date_gmt":"2021-06-03T15:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/?p=7931"},"modified":"2021-06-03T15:22:10","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T15:22:10","slug":"marking-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/marking-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Marking Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there’s such a thing as visual euphoria, it’s the garden coming back to life again in all its glorious colors and textures. The early season vibrance of azaleas is beyond stunning after a long Vermont winter.<\/p>\n

\"Azaleas\"

For those who have followed me faithfully here, you will recognize color as a recurrent early summer theme. How could it not be? With the lupines now out and irises just beginning to pop, I am reminded of\u00a0this post<\/a> from a couple of years ago, exalting a landscape immersed in purple and blue – my favorite.<\/p><\/div>\n

Lately I’ve been noticing that the variety of greens on the hills and mountains that surround us are more vivid than ever. As summer wears on, the leaves will mature, becoming increasingly monochromatic, but for now their wide spectrum from warm to cool, offset by scattered reds and pinks, is pure visual pleasure. The sight is a post-winter reward.<\/p>\n

\"May

May 18, First Color<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a92021 Elizabeth Fram, Watercolor and stitch on paper, 5 x 5 inches. \u00a0I have been meaning to get back to watercolor for ages. This is a rusty first stab after a long break but, as with everything, practice is all. It’s such a pleasurable activity; time just melts away in pools of color.<\/p><\/div>\n

Digging deeper, it is the constant change of the seasons upon a set structure (mountain) or template (garden) that I find endlessly interesting.<\/p>\n

\"May

May 18, detail<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a92021 Elizabeth Fram \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0One can only learn by doing. By matching the colors of thread in the stitched house so closely to those of the paint below, I think the image melts just a bit too much into the background. The aim was to have it be like a good conversationalist, holding its own without either monopolizing or fading into obscurity. The results seem to lean more toward the latter the further you get from the piece. But maybe that’s good? An unexpected surprise upon close inspection?<\/p><\/div>\n

With that in mind, I’m beginning a new project this summer, both as a break from months steeped in COVID-centric houses (although I haven’t released the house shape yet), and also as a creative stretch. I’m looking to combine paint with stitch, and what better inspiration could one ask for than the ever-evolving flora that has suddenly taken center stage once again?<\/p>\n

\"May

The painting before stitching; the marks that outline the house are visible underneath the painting.<\/p><\/div>\n

The core idea I am grappling to articulate relates to structure, within the garden or even, perhaps, in the larger landscape. Inspired generally by Piet Oudolf<\/a> (designer of Manhattan’s High Line and Chicago’s Lurie Garden in Millennium Park) and particularly by the Red Garden<\/a> designed by Jack Lenor Larsen at his LongHouse Reserve, I am thinking about constancy amid change – and even the constancy of<\/em> change. I don’t quite know yet how this will pan out, you are seeing my very first steps. There are bound to be lots of stops and starts as I figure out where I’m headed, but for now it’s enough to embark on something fresh.<\/p>\n

\"May

May 30, Hostas \u00a0<\/strong> \u00a92021 Elizabeth Fram, Watercolor and stitch on paper, 5 x 5 inches.<\/p><\/div>\n

And since I’ve brought you into a garden headspace, here’s another resource, especially if you’re out and about in the area:
\nElizabeth Billings<\/a> is currently doing an artist residency at three of the Nature Conservancy’s natural areas in Vermont. She is creating intentional contemplative spaces under the title “Together: Nature Unites Us”<\/em>. She has been posting about it on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2737<\/span><\/p>\n

Summer reading:<\/p>\n

\"Oudolf

Oudolf Hummelo – A Journey Through A Plantsman’s Life<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

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If there’s such a thing as visual euphoria, it’s the garden coming back to life again in all its glorious colors and textures. The early season vibrance of azaleas is beyond stunning after a long Vermont winter. Lately I’ve been noticing that the variety of greens on the hills and mountains that surround us are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,262,43,862],"tags":[945,1245,1246,1244,1243],"class_list":["post-7931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-color","category-gardens","category-spring","category-textiles-and-drawings","tag-elizabeth-billings","tag-jack-lener-larsen","tag-nature-conservancy","tag-piet-oudolf","tag-watercolor-and-stitch"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5kO5z-23V","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7931"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7963,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7931\/revisions\/7963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}