What to do with your tulips now

The late tulips are still in bloom, I love having tulips in bloom for as much time as possible. So we have a great variety to ensure this, and we add to them every year. Late tulips that are planted in spots that don't get a lot of full sun are in their prime here right now. If you want to get some good late tulips, go to The Thanksgiving Point Garden Path Greenhouse right now and get some bulbs ($3.oo a dozen) and pick out the ones that are still attached to leaves and even still have a colorful bloom- if they are really fresh- you can even plant them right now)

Now that many of the tulips are no longer in bloom, there are some things you ought to be doing to get them ready for next year.

I was looking through my blog to see if I had addressed this already... and I had. I did last year. I had started "Be Still", but I only liked one part of the painting back then. Anyway, check out these tips to help you with your tulips.

pretzel

My friend came over the other night and was looking through some of my watercolors and fell in love with this one... which worked out perfectly because he happens to be an excellent framer, and he cuts my favorite mat board- 8-ply, so a trade was orchestrated.

I love a good trade!

clothesline

Last Thursday, Zion's Bank hosted an Art Reception, it was really fun, there were at least 30 different artists and about 4,500 people came to check it out. Many people told me they really liked this painting, I really like it too, so I thought I would post it here on my blog.

I painted this last September at The Spring City Plein Air Festival. Sanpete County is so beautiful, and there are so many places I wanted to paint, but I just had to paint this clothesline. I started out with a little acrylic, then drew on my panel with vine charcoal, then quickly moved into oil paint.

On this painting, I left a fair amount of the charcoal still exposed. I really enjoyed getting to be in Spring City and paint and for all the good company I had while I painted.

Here I am finishing it up with a palette knife.

One of favorite quotes about art

John Hafen is one of my favorite early Utah artists. He made many contributions to our State that we still enjoy today. It was the art donated by Hafen and Cyrus Dallin (sculptor of the Angel Moroni atop the Salt Lake Temple that started the Springville Art Museum. (which even has my art in it's permanent collection) John Hafen also painted murals in Temples for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was also one of his paintings that started the art collection at The B.Y.U. Museum of Art. He focused mainly on landscape painting and there are many great examples of his work throughout the state.

Hollyhocks by John Hafen

One of my favorite quotes regarding art also comes from John Hafen:

“The influence of art is so powerful in shaping our lives for a higher appreciation of the creations of our God that we cannot afford to neglect an acquaintance with it. We should be as eager for it's companionship in our homes as we are eager for chairs to sit upon, or for food to sustain our lives; for it has as important a mission in shaping our character and conducing to our happiness as anything we term necessities. Life is incomplete without Art.

A religious life is not an ideal religious life without it."

"Created For Greater Things" display at Deseret Book

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has a new book this spring, Created for Greater Things, it has been featured at Deseret Book during General Conference through Mother's Day. The Deseret Book Flagship store in downtown Salt Lake decided to feature my artwork along with Elder Holland's new book in a beautiful display. They had fresh flowers all month long, huge posters of Elder Holland's Book and hung some of my originals and some giclée prints, as well as a special deal on some small framed prints. They got it all set up in March and when Sheri Dew came in to see it, she bought the piece in the upper left corner herself (you can see it in the photo below. After she bought it, they got another just like it to replace it, then we sold it while I was there last week, so it is gone in the photo above)

I actually ended up having a baby the very day that this display was set up- so I didn't get to see it all done until last week- it is even more impressive than I thought. I feel really honored to have been included in such a beautiful display.

It was a really good day to be at Deseret Book, I met a lot of great people and signed a bunch of prints. I brought paint along to paint the fresh flowers- but I didn't get the chance, but I hope to still paint something from my photos and from the experience.

Free passes to The Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival

This week would be the perfect time to go!

The tulips are all blooming, the weather is warm, and you can even go for free!

My good friends at Thanksgiving Point gave me 2 passes to give away! To enter the giveaway just leave a comment here or on facebook, you can also add a link on your blog, share this post, follow my blog, blog about my blog... just leave a comment so I can enter you in the drawing for each thing you do.

The contest ends Thursday at midnight.