Carol in the Garden

My friend Al posted a photo of his wife on Facebook this morning and I thought it was charming. With his permission, I did a painting from it. Carol loves growing native plants and loves to try to raise monarch butterflies in her patch of milkweed. That’s Queen Anne’s lace in the photo — I think the milkweed might have been in another part of the garden. Painting this helped to shake the gloom out of me. I’d been rather laid-up the entire month of May with sciatica. Then lately it’s been quite chilly here — down in the 40’s at night; highs sometimes only in the 50’s. I felt utterly chilled to the bone yesterday. But having a happy, sunny subject to paint today was a good thing!