The beginning of December brings a lull for many gardeners. Of course, the holidays are approaching—but this pause runs deeper. Gardeners know a long winter looms ahead. For green thumbs, the memory of spring and summer flowers seems a distant memory. Still, the urge to experience floral beauty often refuses to subside.
It’s too early yet for garden catalogues featuring next year’s new plant introductions. So we gardeners occupy ourselves with
houseplants and
forcing bulbs indoors. While these pursuits certainly feed our appetite for green, they may not offer as much color as we’d like.
This year I have a solution for the craving for flowers and their brilliant colors. Let me introduce you to Kristy Rice’s watercoloring books.
Kristy’s Winter Cutting Garden and
Kristy’s Fall Cutting Garden each feature 25 botanical illustrations waiting for you to paint them. She’s also done books for spring and summer, if you wish to step out of season.
In the winter watercoloring book, you can paint an amaryllis, winter berries, a teapot overflowing with flowers and a cardinal resting on poinsettias. The fall gardening book is chock full of even more blooming beauties, including dahlias, asters, wisteria, clematis and morning glory.
Rice is an artist, whose first love is painting. She’s a celebrity invitation designer and stylist, whose company,
Monumental Designs, specializes in hand-painted wedding stationary.
According to Rice, the watercolor paper that features each ready-to-paint illustration is specially designed to be weighty enough to soak up water, yet lightweight enough to be flexible. You can pull each page out to paint, or keep your botanical works of art in the book.
When you sit down to paint, Rice suggests using light pressure with your paintbrush. She says the paper will warp some while the paint is wet, but things will smooth out when it dries. If it doesn’t, simply put the dry painting under a heavy book for a day or so.
Sometimes it’s necessary to stop painting in an area when you see pilling, as this is an indication that the page is too wet. Let it dry out some before revisiting with more paint, if you wish to darken things up.
Rice suggests reading the painting tips for each page included at the beginning of the book. She writes a little about the subject and then gives advice, such as color choice, highlighting and layering. In addition to tips, she shares tidbits about what it’s like to be an artist.
Most importantly, Rice hopes that you lose yourself in the moment when you paint. She promises that doing so will positively change the way you feel and the way you see the world. I suspect you’ll soon be seeing a lot more flowers in your winter garden dreams.
Julie Bawden-Davis is a garden writer and master gardener, who since 1985 has written for publications such as Organic Gardening, The American Gardener, Wildflower, Better Homes and Gardens and The Los Angeles Times. She is the author of 10 books, including Reader’s Digest Flower Gardening, Fairy Gardening, The Strawberry Story Series, and Indoor Gardening the Organic Way, and is the founder of HealthyHouseplants.com. Her backyard is a Certified Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.
